DENVER — Denver Police Officer Angela Simon’s hospital room is filled with get well wishes.

“How they appreciate the things that we do as officers,” she says. “And honestly, we just don’t hear that enough. Everything is always negative.”

Simon was making a routine traffic stop at Colfax and Tremont Monday night when a suspected drunk driver slammed it into her, pinning her between her car and the vehicle she had stopped.

“I could feel my whole body just being jerked and twisted,” Simon says, adding that had the second patrol car not been there to take the brunt of the crash, she does not think she would have survived.

23-year-old Nicholas Herrera is accused of vehicular assault. His passenger that night sent flowers and a card to Simon.

“He asked me for forgiveness for him and his friend,” she says.

Simon’s fiancée is also a Denver Police officer. He, too, was injured in a September crash with a hit and run driver. The two officers have a message for motorists.

“We want people to realize you have to be careful when you go out driving,“ Simon says. “If you’ve had too much to drink it isn’t worth it.”

Simon suffered serious injuries and is not sure when she will be released from the hospital.

Related article: Driver faces DUI charges in crash that seriously injured DPD officer