The crash occurred shortly after 7 p.m. at the intersection of East Street and Eaton Avenue.
According to Tracy Police Department Lt. Wayde Harper, the Tracy officer was responding with lights and sirens to a call for assistance from another officer, when the cruiser and Chevrolet SUV crashed.
A mother and her two children, who occupied the SUV, and the officer, Harper said, were all transported to a regional hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
Harper wouldn't release the name of the officer. Harper also wouldn't release the names of the occupants in the second vehicle or any further details about the crash.
"There will be an accident investigation to determine everything," he said. "We don't do that here at the scene right now."
A one-block radius around the intersection was closed as of 8:30 p.m. as the traffic division of the Tracy Police Department began its investigation.
It appeared that the police car was traveling north on East Street — which has the right of way through the intersection with stop signs on Eaton Avenue — when it struck the back of the SUV. The SUV had visible damage to the right side of its rear.
However, Harper would not confirm those details.
The driver of the SUV was in the center (turn-out) lane, when one police car passed..?
Then allegedly as she attempted to merge into the right hand lane (as many have stated is the legal and correct procedure) the 2nd officer had to swerve clipping her passenger-side rear, sending him careening onto the sidewalk and into the light standard.
Why didn't he just simply pass her on the left - if the center-lane would have been open?
"Welcome To TracY" -A Mecca for Motorists' Mayhem.
Someone awhile back wrote a comment on this site about the police, saying everyday they put on their pants the same as the rest of us so they are no better.
My reply? A few of you may want to take note. They may put their pants on the same as the rest of us but they sure as hell have a much greater chance of not taking them off at the end of the day like the rest of us. They may have a nurse taking them off, or worse yet a coroner.
If you want to blame someone, blame the POS's that have infested our town and caused the police to respond in such a way that they did.
Thank god no one was seriously injured
All i know if usually police cars can take some dings..... the damage looks to be very extensive... next to a public park and a school, i have to say they were traveling extremely fast for a city street. Which they have the right to go fast, but they shouldn't go more than 15 or 20 over in a residential
What training , background, and knowledge of this incident do you have to determine how fast the police officer should be going?
Well this cop supposedly had training and it didn't stop him from Dale Earnhardting a pole in town...so maybe your training's overrated huh?
Not thankin is probably one of th biggest causes of these types of accidents. Th lady didn't thank thair was a cop comin up behind her an th cop didn't thank she was apt ta pull back inta th roadway in front of him.
This also begs th question, did she signal that she was startin ta go down th road again?
Assumin thangs can get ya killed. Fortunately this didn't happen. Yes it's a problem th police had ta be respondin in th way they did but after all, that's what we hired em ta do. Ta blame em fer doin thair job just don't make any sense at all.
Glad no one was seriously hurt. Thangs can be replaced, human life can't.
You do pose a good question drumhead. What was so critical that the officer who wrecked had to be in that big of a hurry?
Was the first officer being shot at?
Was the first officer being held hostage by an armed gunman?
My guess would be the second officer just got a thrill out of driving fast on public streets. A complete abuse of power.
You have no information from this article other than second hand info, so there's no way you can place blame on anyone.
Btw your mom says hi.
You need look no further than the picture of the smashed cop car to realize that A) he was going pretty damn fast and B) obviously driving outside of his skill level as is evidenced by the bent pole wrapped around his bumper
P.S. My mom is a douchebag so keep going with the comments they really bug me...LOL!!!
I agree with you DTB1445. It seems whenever an emergency vehicle is approaching with its lights and siren only about half pull over to allow it to proceed without delay to the needed party.
I’m glad to read that everyone involved here only suffered minor injuries and hope for a speedy recovery for all while the investigation into the cause and fault is completed.
I won't opine on who's at fault as I don't have all the facts in this particular incident, but in general I agree with DTB1445. There's a lot of people who are oblivious when emergency vehicles are coming with sirens blaring and lights flashing. Some seem to think, hey whatever, go around, as a matter of fact you're in my way.
It will be interesting to see what happened here.
Given th damage ta th police vehicle it seems he avoided th brunt of th energy bein dissipated by th SUV, which don't seem ta have much damage, an instead opted out fer th light pole.
This probably saved th lives of th SUV passengers an put his own life in greater danger.
Like I said, I am not a traffic accident investigator an can only go by what I see in th photos an what was in th article.
Will save my real thoughts on th matter until th investigation has been completed.
Glad they are all alive ta tell th tale but it seems ta me that some quick thankin on th part of th officer, probably in th way of trainin so it was more of a reflex action, saved a lot of life here.
Machines can be replaced. Not possible with human flesh.