A Vancouver police officer was struck by a car in a construction zone on Highway 99 in Richmond on Wednesday.

He was taken to hospital and is now conscious and breathing. Police say he is being treated for soft-tissue injuries and bruising, but is expected to be okay.

The officer, who works with the provincial Integrated Road Safety Unit, was struck around 4:30 p.m. in the highway's northbound lane near Blundell Road while enforcing the speed limit in a construction zone.

The Vancouver cop, who was wearing a safety vest, attempted to flag a speeding car over to the side of the road when a second vehicle came up from behind and struck the speeding car.

The impact caused the speeding car to crash into the officer.

Police are investigating the crash, and northbound traffic is being rerouted from the highway. The Vancouver Police Department says the injured officer had 13 years of service with the force.

A plea to slow down

Police have been pleading with drivers to slow down in construction zones after two fatal accidents east of Vancouver this summer.

Last week, three Langley residents were killed when the late-model BMW they were driving crashed into the back of a truck in a construction zone.

Mounties say that the car was driving at an "absolutely ridiculous speed" through an active construction zone with a lowered speed limit, when it entered a left-hand lane closed to regular traffic.

It struck the rear end of a flat bed truck parked in the closed lane. Two workers inside the truck are lucky to have escaped with only whiplash and emotional shock.

In July, a 49-year-old flag person was struck and killed on the job on the Lougheed Highway in Mission.