Police Investigating Collision of Cruiser
 

by C. Benjamin Ford
Staff Writer
Courtesy: Gazette.net

Oct. 13, 2004

Officer might not have heard order
to stop chase

Montgomery County Police continue to investigate the Oct. 7 collision of one of the department's police cruisers with another car in Washington, D.C., after a supervisor ordered the officer to end his pursuit of a suspected drunken driver.

Officer Victor Valerio, 36, a 15-year veteran, collided with a car at the intersection of 13th and Kennedy streets in northwest Washington, injuring Patrick McCormick, 25, of Washington and Jessica Siciliano, 27, of Silver Spring. They were not involved in the chase.

McCormick and Siciliano remain in serious condition at Washington Hospital Center, said Officer Junis Fletcher, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesman.

The D.C. police are investigating the crash, and the county police are conducting an internal investigation, said Montgomery police spokeswoman Lucille Baur.

Neither department has completed its investigation.

At 10:47 p.m. Thursday, a Montgomery officer attempted to pull over a suspected drunken driver in a dark-colored Cadillac in the 11700 block of Old Columbia Pike in White Oak, police said.

The driver sped off and tried to ram a police cruiser at the intersection of University Boulevard and Williamsburg Drive. The officer swerved and avoided being struck.

Moments later, the Cadillac rammed a car on University Boulevard at the Capital Beltway to push it out of the way.

As the driver crossed into the District of Columbia, a police supervisor radioed the officers to stop the chase.

A dispatcher repeated the order. Then, a minute after the second radio announcement, Valerio crashed into the car carrying McCormick and Siciliano at 13th and Kennedy and radioed for help.

Valerio performed first aid on the injured couple until paramedics arrived. Valerio was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries and released.

The driver of the Cadillac escaped and has not been captured.

Police do not know if Valerio was still in pursuit of the Cadillac when the crash occurred, Baur said.

"When an officer is involved in a critical incident like this was, the officer receives stress management counseling before the interview takes place," she said.

Investigators do not know if Valerio heard the order to break off the pursuit at the District line, Baur said.

"A chase with multiple cruisers is a very noisy environment," she said.

Valerio is on paid administrative leave, as is typical in such cases, Baur said.

Under county rules, police officers are allowed to chase fleeing motorists suspected to be under the influence of alcohol or of committing a violent assault, such as ramming another car deliberately to escape.

Under the policy, last revised on June 11, 2003, supervisors have to consider the seriousness of the crime and weigh it with safety concerns, such as the time of day and weather conditions.

Earlier in the day on Oct. 7, County Council members discussed an alarming rise in collisions involving police cruisers and other emergency vehicles.

Much of the council members' attention, however, focused on the police department, which had the highest number of crashes.

Crashes of police cruisers have cost Montgomery County $624,844 in claims this year, considerably higher than the previous year's $395,548. The county's insurance fund received 358 claims in fiscal 2004, which ended June 30, compared to 294 claims in fiscal 2003.

Capt. Luther T. Reynolds, acting assistant chief for the department's Management Services Bureau, said the department has ordered each officer to take four hours of in-service training this fall to improve driver safety.

This is the first time the department has done such an extensive driver training program for all officers, he said.

The department also is preparing its first comprehensive collision review report with a traffic analyst examining all crashes to try to determine trends and suggest ways to improve, Reynolds said.

The rise in crashes has coincided with the installation of the mobile data terminals into cruisers 18 months ago, Reynolds told the council members.

The department is looking into whether the placement of the terminals on the dashboards is a factor in the crashes, he said. The technology division is working to have the information transmitted by voice instead of appearing only on the computer screens so the officers do not have to look down to read it, Reynolds said.

The department also wants to put a driving simulator at the police academy to give recruits and experienced officers a chance to practice their skills in a safe environment, he said.

"We're very concerned about this and taking it seriously," he said.