The driver of a tractor trailer truck that struck the back of a state trooper’s cruiser on Interstate 295 Thursday morning has been cited for failing to move over for an emergency vehicle.

Gusan Yedic, 56, of Yorktown Heights, New York, was summonsed for the violation after his tractor trailer slammed into the rear of a state police cruiser along Interstate 295 northbound in Richmond. According to the Maine Department of Public Safety, the cruiser was in the breakdown with blue lights flashing. Trooper Greg Stevens had just checked on another tractor trailer that had been stopped along the road. Moments after Stevens returned to his cruiser and after that tractor trailer had merged back into traffic, the cruiser was struck from behind.

Public safety spokesman Steve McCausland said the truck then caught fire and ended up in the median. The fire destroyed the truck and also caused a grass fire in the median, which was extinguished by local fire departments called to the scene at 9:47 a.m. Yedic was not injured.

Stevens, a 17-year veteran with the state police, is being treated at Maine Medical Center for broken ribs and neck and leg injuries. The cruiser, a 2015 Ford sports utility vehicle, was demolished.

The tractor trailer is owned Yamamoto Carrier Inc., of Buffalo Grove, New York. It was empty at the time of the collision. The burned out tractor trailer was slated to be removed from the median Thursday afternoon and traffic had been reduced to one lane.

A team of troopers were called to the crash site and members of the crash reconstruction unit were on scene investigating.

Maine’s “move over law” says motorists should merge to the left or slow down when an emergency vehicle or wrecker is alongside a road with its lights on, according to McCausland.

Following the crash northbound lanes were shut down for about an hour and reopened shortly after 10:30 a.m. The crash occurred just beyond the Alexander Reed Road overpass and had traffic at a standstill just beyond Exit 43. Northbound vehicles were diverted off I295 at Exit 43.

Vehicles stuck in the highway traffic near the crash were pulled over to the sides of either lanes to allow emergency vehicles to pass down the middle. Most were shut off in the hot, humid conditions. Car doors were open and occupants stood in the roadway chatting — a couple on their cell phones. The hatch was up on a Subaru full of camping gear and children popped their heads out of other vehicles. Some curious motorists climbed up to the Alexander Reed Road overpass where they could see the crash scene a short distance ahead.

One driver in front of the pack parked near the public safety barriers said he indeed had a frightening front row seat, saw the “whoosh” of fire that consumed the tractor trailer truck and then noticed the cruiser off the right side of the road and eventually, a visibly shaken trooper emerge from the crinkled SUV.