Officer Hit by Drunk Driving Suspect : Van Nuys: LAPD veteran, in serious condition, was working sobriety checkpoint. Felony hit-and-run charges are expected.

A police officer working a sobriety checkpoint in Van Nuys was hit by a suspected drunk driver Sunday morning, Los Angeles police said.

Officer Jeffrey G. Williams, 41, was listed in serious but stable condition at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.

Williams, a motorcycle officer with the Valley Traffic Division, is a 17-year LAPD veteran, said Lt. Bob Normandy, a department spokesman.

The driver of the car, Juan Hinojosa, 24, of Panorama City, was held on suspicion of felony drunk driving. Officers expect to file an additional felony hit-and-run charge today, Normandy said.

Williams was one of six LAPD and California Highway Patrol officers assigned to a sobriety checkpoint on Van Nuys Boulevard near Nordhoff Street. Officers were stopping vehicles traveling south on Van Nuys.

“Officer Williams was working a chase detail, north of the location,” Normandy said. “His job was to stop people evading the checkpoint.”

After leading one car to the checkpoint about 1:10 a.m., Williams was traveling north on Van Nuys when he was hit from behind by Hinojosa, who was traveling at an estimated 65 to 75 m.p.h., Normandy said.

Williams was thrown from his motorcycle and landed on the hood of Hinojosa’s 1980 Datsun. With the officer still on the hood, Hinojosa spun the car around and tried to flee, Normandy said.

“The officer fell off the hood of the car and was run over by the vehicle’s tires,” he said.

Williams was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center with multiple rib fractures, a dislocated shoulder, a collapsed lung, cuts and bruises.

Officers arrested Hinojosa a few blocks away on Plummer Street. His blood alcohol level registered at 0.21% and 0.22%, Normandy said. The legal limit is 0.08%.

The sobriety checkpoint was part of a CHP effort to curb the historically high number of drunk drivers during the holidays.