Cop drives backwards into highway traffic at full speed. But why?

Was this a case of needlessly dangerous driving, or an appropriate reaction to an emergency situation? Not even the police know what is going on in this video.

A state trooper in Pennsylvania was filmed driving backwards at full speed, with lights flashing, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a road that has a posted speed limit of 65 mph (104 km/h).

Tom Lyons, who was in another car with friends filming the incident, said their car was going 75 mph (120 km/h) at the time of the incident and the officer in question was nearly keeping up to speed with the camera car.

But why was the officer driving backwards on the shoulder, into highway traffic, potentially endangering the lives of other motorists?

Lyons told Jalopnik.com he thinks the cop was trying to get to the scene of an incident as quickly as possible. ”I looked like 3 or 4 miles down the road and there was one of their ‘municipal vehicle only’ entrance gates so maybe he was trying to get to a call the fastest way he knew how,” Lyons told the website.

When Jalopnik brought the video to the attention of state police, they couldn’t provide much of an explanation.

“There could be many reasons that he is driving in reverse and quite often on our job there are many factors that come into play when responding to and handling emergency situations,” a state police spokesperson said.