Motorcyclist Turns a Massachusetts Traffic Stop Into a Terrifying Near Miss

For several seconds, the Massachusetts State Trooper is trapped in one of the worst possible places he could be.

Directly in front of a running motorcycle.

Behind him is an active intersection.

Traffic is moving across the road.

The rider has repeatedly been ordered to shut off the motorcycle and get off.

Instead, the engine comes back to life.

Then the bike starts moving.

The trooper has almost nowhere to go.

He backs up while trying to control the motorcycle, but the rider keeps advancing. The officer is pushed farther into the intersection as a white pickup truck approaches from the side.

Suddenly, the encounter is no longer about erratic driving or a traffic violation.

The trooper is trying to avoid being run over by the motorcycle in front of him while simultaneously avoiding the truck crossing behind him.

At the last possible moment, he separates from the bike.

The motorcycle slips past.

The pickup passes within feet of the confrontation.

The trooper remains standing.

The rider disappears down the road.

The entire sequence takes only seconds.

But it would lead Massachusetts State Police investigators to 19-year-old Colin James Webb, an arrest two days later and a list of 12 charges.

More importantly, the dashcam would preserve exactly how quickly an apparently ordinary highway enforcement encounter came within inches of producing a catastrophic outcome.

An Erratic Ride on Interstate 95

The incident happened on July 5, 2023, in Wakefield, roughly 15 miles north of Boston.

According to Massachusetts State Police, a trooper observed a motorcycle being operated erratically on Interstate 95.

The rider would later be identified as Webb, a resident of Reading.

The trooper followed the motorcycle as it moved off I-95 toward the Exit 57 off-ramp. Reporting on the incident noted that the trooper followed without activating his emergency lights during this portion of the encounter.

Eventually, the motorcycle stops.

From the dashcam's perspective, this initially looks like the moment when the uncertainty should disappear.

The rider has stopped.

The trooper has caught up.

There is no high-speed pursuit underway.

The officer gets out and approaches on foot.

But almost immediately, the situation becomes unusual.

The rider does not behave as though the stop is settled.

Instead, the officer begins repeatedly ordering him to shut the motorcycle off.

“Turn the Bike Off”

The trooper's problem is simple.

As long as the engine remains running, the motorcycle remains capable of moving.

The officer therefore orders Webb to shut it down and dismount.

Massachusetts State Police later said those instructions were given repeatedly.

Webb does not follow them.

At one point, the motorcycle is shut off.

Then Webb turns the ignition back on.

That seemingly small action changes the risk level.

A stationary motorcycle with its engine off is one thing.

A running motorcycle with a rider refusing to dismount is another.

Unlike a passenger car, a motorcycle does not surround its operator with doors that can potentially limit movement.

If the rider twists the throttle, the situation can change almost instantly.

The trooper recognizes that problem.

He moves toward the front of the bike.

Now he is positioned between the motorcycle and the intersection.

It is an extremely vulnerable position.

But it also gives him an opportunity to physically prevent Webb from simply accelerating away.

For a moment, neither side gives ground.

Then Webb does exactly what the trooper is trying to prevent.

The Motorcycle Starts Moving With the Trooper in Front

The bike moves forward.

The trooper is still standing directly in front of the handlebars and front wheel.

Massachusetts State Police described Webb as driving forward while the officer remained in that position.

The dashcam captures what happens next with disturbing clarity.

The trooper moves backward.

The motorcycle keeps coming.

He tries to remain upright while simultaneously attempting to control the rider's movement.

The encounter is now moving toward active traffic.

This is the crucial point.

Had the confrontation remained on the shoulder or roadside, the primary danger would have been the motorcycle itself.

Once the officer is pushed into the intersection, there are multiple threats.

The motorcycle is one.

Passing traffic is another.

And the trooper cannot devote his full attention to either one because he is dealing with both simultaneously.

Then a white pickup truck enters the picture.

A Pickup Truck Is Crossing Directly Behind Him

The truck is traveling through the intersection at precisely the wrong moment.

Its driver is not part of the police encounter.

There is no reason to expect a trooper and motorcycle to suddenly move into the truck's path.

Yet that is exactly what happens.

The motorcycle continues forward.

The trooper keeps retreating.

The pickup gets closer.

For a brief moment, the officer appears caught between two moving vehicles.

Police later emphasized just how close the situation came to disaster.

The trooper managed to disengage from the motorcycle before it continued forward, allowing him to narrowly avoid being struck by the passing pickup.

Watching the footage frame by frame makes the danger even clearer.

There is no large safety margin.

There is no empty intersection.

The officer's escape depends on separating himself from the motorcycle at almost exactly the right moment.

He does.

The bike continues.

The truck passes.

The trooper survives without being dragged beneath either vehicle.

And Webb accelerates away.

The Rider Escapes, but the Investigation Doesn't Stop

For Webb, getting away from the intersection did not mean getting away from the case.

Massachusetts State Police investigators already had significant information about what had happened.

There was dashcam footage.

There was the original trooper's account.

There was information concerning the motorcycle and its operation.

Investigators from Troop A and the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office worked to identify and locate the rider.

Two days after the confrontation, on July 7, police arrested Webb.

The short escape had therefore bought approximately two days.

It also transformed the legal consequences.

This was no longer simply a case involving alleged erratic motorcycle operation.

The confrontation with the trooper had become central to the investigation.

Twelve Charges Follow the Arrest

Massachusetts State Police announced a substantial list of charges against Webb.

They included:

assault and battery on a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, refusing to identify himself to police, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, a number plate violation, speeding, failure to stop or yield at traffic signals, a marked-lanes violation, failure to yield at an intersection, a breakdown-lane violation, missing number plate and failure to stop for police.

It is important to describe those as charges rather than convictions.

But the list demonstrates how dramatically the situation had escalated.

The original reason the trooper noticed the motorcycle concerned how it was being operated.

By the time Webb was arrested, allegations concerning the physical confrontation with the officer sat alongside numerous traffic offenses.

Running had not made the original problem disappear.

It had expanded it.

Why the Trooper's Position Became So Dangerous

One of the most interesting aspects of the footage is the trooper's physical position.

Standing in front of a motorcycle creates a completely different tactical problem from standing beside a stopped car.

A motorcycle is narrow.

It accelerates rapidly.

There is very little structure between the rider and the officer.

Once the motorcycle begins moving, the officer has only a few choices.

Move aside.

Attempt to stop it.

Or retreat.

But the surrounding road geometry limits those choices.

The trooper cannot simply back away indefinitely because an active intersection is behind him.

And that is precisely where the confrontation goes.

The motorcycle effectively converts the officer's retreat path into another hazard.

Every step backward puts him closer to moving cross traffic.

The white pickup demonstrates the consequence.

The officer is not merely avoiding the motorcycle.

He is being pushed toward another vehicle.

The Pickup Driver Had Almost No Time to Understand What Was Happening

The pickup truck also reveals something frequently overlooked in police footage.

Bystanders often have the least information and the least reaction time.

The trooper knows the rider has refused commands.

Webb knows what he intends to do.

The pickup driver knows almost none of that.

From that driver's perspective, a police officer and motorcycle suddenly appear near the truck's path.

There may be only seconds to interpret the situation.

That uncertainty is why traffic-related police confrontations can become dangerous far beyond the people directly involved.

A decision made by one driver can force several unrelated motorists into emergency reactions.

Here, fortunately, the pickup clears the scene.

A slightly different speed or trajectory could have produced a dramatically different result.

The Dashcam Makes the Near Miss Impossible to Ignore

This case is also a strong example of why police vehicle cameras matter.

A written report could accurately state that a rider pushed a trooper toward traffic.

But those words do not fully communicate the geometry of the incident.

The video does.

The viewer can see where the motorcycle is positioned.

The viewer can see the trooper directly ahead.

The viewer can see the intersection behind him.

Then the pickup enters.

Suddenly the danger is visually obvious.

There is almost no room.

That visual evidence helps explain why Massachusetts State Police treated the incident as much more serious than a motorcyclist simply fleeing a stop.

The department characterized the conduct as an attempted assault on the trooper, and the resulting charges included both assault and battery on an officer and assault with a dangerous weapon.

Police Leadership Condemns the Incident

After Webb's arrest, Massachusetts State Police leadership addressed the incident publicly.

Then-interim superintendent Colonel John Mawn Jr. described this and another recent attack on a trooper as brazen and deliberately violent acts against public servants performing their duties.

That response reflects the department's interpretation of what the footage shows.

This was not viewed merely as someone becoming impatient during a roadside encounter.

From the police perspective, the rider deliberately moved the motorcycle while the trooper remained directly in front of it.

That action placed the officer in danger from the motorcycle itself and from the traffic into which he was being pushed.

The footage became powerful evidence because it preserved that sequence from beginning to end.

The Most Dramatic Moment Lasts Only Seconds

The USA TODAY version of the footage is only about 42 seconds long.

That is enough.

The central event happens so quickly that a longer video is not necessary to understand the immediate danger.

There is a verbal confrontation.

The engine runs.

The motorcycle moves.

The officer retreats.

Traffic crosses.

The officer separates.

The motorcycle disappears.

Those few seconds are effective precisely because the viewer understands the danger before knowing the outcome.

When the pickup enters the frame, the central question becomes immediate:

Can the trooper get out of the way in time?

That is natural suspense.

It does not require exaggeration.

The footage itself supplies it.

The Case Is About More Than a Rider Refusing to Stop

At first glance, this could be summarized as another motorcyclist fleeing police.

But that description misses the most important part.

The rider's escape is not what makes the video remarkable.

It is how the escape happens.

Webb allegedly does not simply accelerate from a trooper standing several feet away.

The officer is directly in front of the motorcycle.

The bike moves anyway.

That forces the trooper backward into an environment he cannot control.

Had there been no cross traffic, the encounter might have looked very different.

But there was cross traffic.

And one vehicle arrived at almost exactly the worst possible time.

That combination transformed several seconds of resistance into a potentially fatal event.

Getting Away for Two Days Changed Nothing

Webb was not arrested at the intersection.

He left.

For anyone watching only the dashcam, the story appears to end with the motorcycle disappearing.

But police work continued after the camera stopped recording the rider.

Investigators identified him.

They located him.

On July 7, two days after the Wakefield encounter, he was taken into custody.

The arrest provides an important ending because it demonstrates the difference between leaving the immediate scene and escaping accountability.

The motorcycle's acceleration created distance from the trooper.

It did not erase the dashcam.

It did not erase the investigation.

And it did not erase the encounter that had already been recorded.

One Different Movement Could Have Changed Everything

Perhaps the most unsettling way to understand this footage is to imagine how little needed to change for the outcome to become catastrophic.

If the pickup had arrived a fraction earlier.

If the trooper had stumbled.

If his clothing had caught on the motorcycle.

If Webb had turned slightly differently.

If another vehicle had followed immediately behind the pickup.

Any of those changes could have turned a dramatic near miss into a serious injury or death.

Instead, the officer remained upright long enough to disengage.

The pickup passed.

The motorcycle escaped.

No collision occurred.

That outcome makes the video easy to watch afterward.

But it should not make the underlying danger seem smaller.

The officer could not know in real time that he would escape the intersection unharmed.

Neither could the pickup driver.

A Traffic Stop Becomes a Criminal Investigation in Seconds

The Wakefield incident demonstrates how quickly the nature of a police encounter can change.

It began because a trooper observed what Massachusetts State Police described as erratic motorcycle operation on Interstate 95.

The motorcycle exited the highway.

The trooper approached.

Commands were issued.

The rider refused to dismount.

Then the engine came back on.

From that point forward, every decision compressed the officer's options.

The motorcycle moved.

The trooper backed up.

The intersection arrived.

So did the pickup.

And suddenly an enforcement encounter that might otherwise have ended with traffic citations had become an investigation involving alleged assault on a police officer.

Two days later, Colin James Webb was under arrest facing 12 charges.

The motorcycle may have carried him away from the intersection.

The camera ensured the incident followed him.

And the footage remains striking because its most dangerous moment contains no spectacular crash, no enormous police pursuit and no dramatic wreckage.

Instead, it shows something much simpler.

A motorcycle moves forward.

A trooper is forced backward.

A pickup crosses behind him.

And for one or two seconds, there is almost nowhere left for the officer to go.