An Iowa police officer narrowly escaped being significantly injured by a falling tree Wednesday during what was supposed to be a routine traffic stop.

Dash-cam footage shows Centerville officer Jeremy Veach pull talking to the driver of a vehicle he had just stopped when he heard something that didn't sound quite right.

"I heard a couple of cracks," he told KCCI-TV.

That's when a tree suddenly fell, nearly crushing Veach. Fortunately, he only suffered minor scrapes and bruising.

"Fortunately for me and unfortuntely for the owner of the vehicle it absorbed a good portion of the impact," he told KCCI, adding that the whole thing "felt like being swatted with a giant fly swatter."

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