Ann Arbor officers released from hospital after crash with minor injuries
An Ann Arbor police car rests next to the car it struck on Ellsworth Road as officers were on their way to a shooting incident Thursday afternoon.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
- Previous story: Ann Arbor police officers injured in crash on way to shooting
A 29-year-old Ohio woman who was involved in a crash with an Ann Arbor police car is expected to be released from St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Thursday night, as are both officers.
“They’re doing good,” said Sgt. Paul Curtis of the Ann Arbor Police Department about the officers.
Police are not releasing the identity of the female driver or the officers.
The police car crashed into the woman's vehicle on Ellsworth Road near State Street around 1 p.m. Thursday. The officers were en route to a shooting on the 700 block of North Maple.
Curtis said it’s common practice for police officers to respond to high emergency calls like shootings and missing children no matter where they happen to be at the time, as long as they’re not attending to another matter.
“If you want to call yourself a police officer in this city and there’s a shooting, you go,” Curtis said. “If they didn’t go, I would have been disappointed.”
Both officers are SWAT-trained, Curtis pointed out, and officers with that kind of training could be of much help at shooting scenes. Other responding units are also dispatched to the scene in case they can be of help intercepting a fleeing suspect or suspects, Curtis added.
In the case of a high emergency incident, a patrol car will cease heading to the scene only if the officers receive word that further help is not needed.
Both vehicles were westbound at the time of the crash. The lights and sirens were operating on the police car, and the other vehicles in the westbound lane had slowed down and pulled off the road. The officer driving the police car was attempting to pass these cars when it struck the woman’s car on the driver’s side while she was making a left-hand turn into Zippy Auto Wash.
The two vehicles ended up in a culvert, which was a good distance away from the road, according to Curtis.
“That patrol car was up in the air,” he said.
Matt Kasman was in the office of Zippy Auto Wash, where he is an assistant manager, when the accident occurred.
One of his co-workers came into his office and told him about the accident, Kasman said, so they both ran out. The two vehicles were in the culvert and there were about five or six cars slowly moving west by the accident.
“I was pretty shocked,” Kasman said, adding that the police car had “hit the front left of her car.”
The officer driving the vehicle emerged from the patrol car and used the radio on his shoulder to call for help, said Kasman, who assumed the officer wasn’t injured too severely.
Kasman said the officer in the passenger seat remained in the vehicle, leading Kasman to believe he was the more injured of the two.
An Ann Arbor Police Department SUV arrived, followed by an ambulance soon after.
Accidents are not infrequent at that particular spot, according to Kasman. In the past few months, there have been three accidents in the same general area, all of them involving people trying to make a left-hand turn into the car wash, he said.
There is currently no left-hand turn lane at the car wash entrance.
“The turning lane is a problem,” Kasman said.
John Counts covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at johncounts@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
RCDC
Sat, May 19, 2012 : 3:19 a.m.
A2 police speeds thru stop signs/lights not the first time theyve hit a car..this one just gets "PRAISE" because he was on his way to a shooting...this is a crock of bologna.
Kelly Loe
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 11:56 a.m.
My husband and I were just in this same spot over the weekend when we encountered a car stopped in the road waiting to turn left into the carwash. The car in front of us went around on the right but hit the edge of the crumbling asphalt (showing this is repeatedly happening in this spot). It did something to her tire/car because she had to pull over onto the shoulder before driving much further. They need a left hand turn area or more room to go around on the right. I remarked to my husband that this is a very dangerous location and I bet there are lots of accidents here. So this story is no surprise. I realize alot of people don't pull off to the right or may already be stopped in an awkward location when they hear sirens making it harder for police or ambulances to get around. But it seems I've seen several similar dangerous situations recently of police having to weave around vehicles at a high rate of speed.
Mitch
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 11:11 a.m.
Wow, a shooting at Dexter & Maple. The responding officers are coming from the other side of State street on Ellsworth. Great thought on cutting back on officers!
snoper
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 10:08 a.m.
We ask our police to run into dangerous situations that others are running away from, and they do it on a moment's notice. Maybe the carping, the criticisms and the back seat driving could stand down for 24 hours or so. Not in this town.
AfterDark
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 2:02 a.m.
Wow, now you know how to decoy all the on-duty cops to one part of town so that you can cause mischief in another.
Diane
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 11:34 a.m.
Are you that person?
a2citizen
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 3:48 a.m.
Yes, accidentally shooting yourself works every time.
RJA
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 1:54 a.m.
It's time for a NO LEFT TURN sign here, (call and make it happen). This is an area where drivers need to turn their own radio's down or off, do not be on your cell and look into the rear view mirror often. Glad to hear everyone is going to be OK.
TinyArtist
Sat, May 19, 2012 : 1:18 p.m.
How about NO LEFT TURN and TURN YOUR RADIO DOWN? Or, to save on letters, NO LEFT TURN YOUR RADIO DOWN.
racerx
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 1:12 a.m.
I travel Ellsworth everyday to work in Pittsfield township. I like the radar machine showing your speed. This can only mean that AAPD will soon be monitoring traffic in this area near the South Side Park. Oh, but to widen then road to allow a more even flow of traffic seems silly. We, Ann Arbor, like the herd mentality of single file, keep cars at snails pace.
GoNavy
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 11:06 a.m.
As you know, that road can get pretty bad. Not everybody knows the correct speed, and when you're stuck, you're STUCK.
Daisy1
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 12:41 a.m.
This shows some of the dangers officers face every day. Best wishes for a fast recovery.
Terrin
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 4:56 a.m.
I took it to show the type of danger everybody faces every day. Driving is dangerous.
Ann English
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 12:24 a.m.
So the police hit her front left corner panel. I'm thinking that the officer on the passenger side had a higher-impact collision, hitting a more stationary part of her car, namely the front left wheel. That the officer behind the steering wheel hit a more impact absorbing part of her car, in front of that front-left wheel, less stationary because it was not only resting on the pavement, but wasn't firmly in place with hundreds of pounds of weight holding it down. Until this update came out, I was assuming that the Toyota driver's DOOR was hit. Sometimes people DO die from that kind of collision and buckling up doesn't help. Call this a L-bone collision; a T-bone collision would be one in which one car collides with the middle of the other car, whether the other one is two-door or four-door.
TinyArtist
Sat, May 19, 2012 : 1:20 p.m.
Unfortunately, any comment I would make here would be deleted like the others.
Gorc
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 12:05 a.m.
Don't worry when the county installs the roundabout being discussed at State Street and Ellsworth all traffic will be forced to slow down. There will be lines of traffic from all directions due to volume of cars trying to get throught the intersection.
say it plain
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 4:19 p.m.
Yes, @obviouscomment! I've witnessed the backup off the M14 at the Skyline roundabouts, and at the Maple part of it as well, all because people seem to think that "yield" means "stop" and because the folks coming off the highways especially seem to think you need to jump up to 35 miles per hour to get through the circle! It's so frustrating, because these circles would work wonders for traffic--preventing backups *and* accidents both--if people would only *use them right*! Some of it seems to be poor layout and feeding, but what do I know, I'm no engineer, and I presume suchlike folks were okay with the way these were designed ... Maybe they need to post some traffic cops *in the circles* a couple commutes a week for a while to get people to understand them better? The posted limit is *15 mph*, and whenever I try to follow that, I feel I might be endangering people lol, they are all going so much faster! Sometimes I actually have people beep at me still for doing 'the right thing' on those circles, and that's typically my cue to go *exactly* as slow as the speed limit reads ;-)
obviouscomment
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 2:10 p.m.
really? i've witnessed the complete opposite at 23 and geddes...traffic on geddes moves great, but if you are trying to get off the highway there will be a line of cars waiting for people to go the proper speed through the roundabout so you can even enter because people are going 30-40 straight through
Terrin
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 4:54 a.m.
Where ever else they have installed roundabouts traffic has seemed to improve. This is especially the case by 23 and Geddes. Every morning around eight to nine that area would be super congested. Now it is largely smooth sailing. Now it will be hell for the period of time necessary to install the roundabouts. There also generally is a learning curb period where everyone gets familiar with the roundabouts. I, however, like the increased period of time I do not have to stop my vehicle when coming to an intersection.
Mike H.
Thu, May 17, 2012 : 11:45 p.m.
I agree with the comment about there being no left-turn lane. I visit Zippy's regularly to wash my car, and I find that making a left turn into this place can feel rather hazardous.
Bruce P.
Thu, May 17, 2012 : 11:36 p.m.
I don't think you know how far back the AAPD has been cut the last couple of years. Some shifts may only have two cars on the road at the same time. People nhave to pay attention to their driving. I have seen people fail to yeild to an ambulance with lights and siren.
brb11
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 2:30 p.m.
@SW30 I've never been ticketed, or even pulled over, and I think the enforcement of the obvious speed traps (e.g. Huron Parkway b/w Washtenaw and Geddes) is ridiculous. In many of these places, 10-15 mph over the speed limit is perfectly safe and driving the speed limit almost feels like impeding traffic. You don't have to be vindictive about them to disagree with them.
SW40
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 1:05 p.m.
GoNavy, AAPD has units assigned specifically to traffic detail as does every major metropolitan area. The amount of money AAPD brings in from traffic citations is a fraction of their operating cost. Some of us actually believe people should obey traffic laws. You obviously got a ticket at some point and just can't seem to get over it, perhaps some type of grief counseling would help.
GoNavy
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 11:05 a.m.
With only two cars on the road, how can they afford to waste one on Revenue Duty manning the various speed traps this city relies on?
Kristine
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 6:20 a.m.
On Michigan Ave. in Pittsfield Twp. in one 24-hour period, I witnessed cars failing to pull over for four (FOUR!) police cars with their lights flashing at 12:30 a.m., and later that same day, at about 2p.m., cars failing to pull over for an ambulance with it lights and siren on. People truly are that dumb, or they are simply self-absorbed. Maybe all of the above.
Lou Perry
Thu, May 17, 2012 : 11:23 p.m.
AAPD 70 mph on a two lane road with traffic. Not called for and I am sure this wasn't the only AAPD car in the area.
xsnrg454
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 4:25 a.m.
and your expertise is based on what?
a2citizen
Fri, May 18, 2012 : 3:46 a.m.
Where did you get 70 mph from? Are we just making stuff up as we go along?
nowayjose
Thu, May 17, 2012 : 11:52 p.m.
Where does it say 70mph? Or did you h e your radar gun out? I'm sure you'd want the police to go the speed limit if you had a emergency.
kalamityjane
Thu, May 17, 2012 : 11:20 p.m.
Ellsworth is a terrible roadway, it needs to be widened and its terrible there is no turn lane. However, I don't understand how people don't hear the blaring police sirens coming towards them? Glad everyone in this entire situation seems to be donig ok?