Driver suffers minor injuries when trooper rear-ends car
Courtesy of Randy Bell
The scene of a crash Monday involving a state police cruiser and other vehicles in Houston
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Photo courtesy of Randy Bell
Police investigate Monday after a state police cruiser struck another car during a pursuit in Houston.
The wreckage after a state police cruiser struck another vehicle during a pursuit in Houston on Monday
A driver suffered minor injuries Monday when a state trooper’s cruiser rammed into a car in Houston while trying to chase another driver over a sidewalk and through a red light.
State police provided details Tuesday from the chase a day earlier, when the driver of a vehicle described only as a white sedan managed to elude the trooper.
State police spokeswoman Trooper Melinda Bondarenka said in an email that the trooper – whom she did not identify – began pursuing the sedan with lights and siren on after spotting the car going 85 mph on Interstate 79 north about 10:05 a.m. The posted speed limit in that area is 55 mph.
“The operator of the sedan began to drive erratically, weaving through traffic and then exited I-79 via the Houston exit (Exit 43),” Bondarenka said.
With the trooper in pursuit, the car’s driver headed north on South Main Street toward West Pike Street.
Bondarenka said the trooper and the other driver had a red light as they approached that intersection, where four vehicles – two in each lane – were already stopped.
“The fleeing vehicle swerved to the right and drove over the sidewalk, passing the stopped vehicles and then continued through the intersection which still maintained a red traffic light,” Bondarenka’s email continued. “The trooper, still pursuing the vehicle, appeared to have attempted to also pass the stopped vehicles using the sidewalk to the right.”
Instead, the trooper struck a white Chevrolet Cobalt that was waiting at the intersection. That car’s driver, who was also unidentified in Bondarenka’s email, was treated at Washington Hospital and later released.
The trooper was uninjured. The state police vehicle was disabled by the crash, and two cars “sustained minor damage.”
The investigation is ongoing, and state police are still trying to locate the sedan. Anyone with information is asked to call state police in Washington at 724-222-5200.