City of Washington Police SUV involved in violent rollover crash with another vehicle
WASHINGTON, Pa. (KDKA) -- An investigation is underway in Washington County after a police officer was involved in a crash last night.
The crash sent a city of Washington police officer and another driver to the hospital.
State police said the accident happened just before 11 p.m. at the intersection of Jefferson and Hall Avenues. Investigators said the officer involved was responding to a domestic call on Summerlea Avenue where a person was allegedly being stabbed.
The officer was traveling northbound on Jefferson Avenue when police said another driver pulled onto Jefferson from Hall Avenue when the two collided.
The officer was rushed to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital by ambulance. He was released Thursday morning. The other driver was flown to the same hospital. KDKA has not received an update on her condition.
A woman, who lives less than a mile away from the crash scene, told KDKA she believes she saw the officer passing by her home moments before the crash.
"So, I came outside on my porch, and I was just sitting here, and I heard sirens, and all of a sudden, over the hill, up there comes a police officer, and he's flying. And so, by the time I look up, he's already like halfway down the street with the sirens on," Lauren Mercer said.
"I turned my scanner on and I started listening, and he was on his way to arrive at the scene of some man, I guess he was stabbing himself in the neck or something like that and all of a sudden, like, there was some commotion on the scanner. There was bunch of beeps, and somebody came back on and said, we have an accident."
Mercer said the car that passed her home was a city of Washington police cruiser who had his lights and sirens on.
"This road [Murtland Avenue] is like the main road to get from [route] 19 to anywhere over here. So, this road is like the main road that people take all the time," Mercer said.
"Like, there's already people that speed up and down the road all the time, but that police officer, he was going very, very fast, super fast. To the point where by the time I looked up, you know, he was already halfway down the street and that's crazy speed. You know, I have a son, and I'm always concerned about cars flying, and he was just, it was crazy."
The speed limit on Jefferson Avenue is 35 miles per hour. It changes to 25 miles per hour by Washington Senior High School.
"I understand that police officers have to get they have to get to the scene of the crime as fast as they can, you know. So, I understand that. But also, like, I feel like, because he was going that fast, there's not enough time to react if something like that happens," Mercer said.
"And so, I feel like the reduced speed could have prevented that, because then he would have had enough time to realize, you know, 'Hey, there's a car let me move or let me slow down,' there's not enough time when you're going that fast."
"Based on where she (the witness) lives on Murtland Avenue, the officer would have never been taking that route to get to the domestic incident he was originally responding to before the accident happened," said JoJo Burgess, mayor of Washington.
It's unclear if speed was a factor in the crash. State police said troopers are conducting interviews and collecting surveillance video as the investigation continues.
