A Philadelphia Police officer wound up hospitalized after colliding with a bread truck while responding to pursuit along a popular part of South Street Tuesday morning.
“This male ran from police and there was a foot pursuit broadcasted over the radio and that’s when this female officer got involved in the accident,” said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.
The female officer’s cruiser collided with the bakery truck along South Street near 11th Street while she rushed to join the pursuit of a man who investigators say began punching people along the 300 block of South Street – that’s the block with Lorenzo’s and Sons Pizza and the TLA on it – around 2 a.m.
“The passenger side of her police vehicle was struck by the front end of a bread truck that was traveling north on 11th Street,” said Small.
The impact caused air bags to go off in the officer’s cruiser. Fellow officers rushed their injured 45-year-old colleague to Jefferson University Hospital.
“She was bleeding from her mouth and she had some pain to the left side of her body,” said Small. “She is presently in stable condition, she’s walking, talking, she’s conscious, she’s going to be OK.”
Small said the crash appeared to be a simple accident. The 29-year-old Aversa’s Bakery truck driver remained on the scene and cooperated with investigators, said police.
Officers nabbed the assault suspect from the call that the officer was responding to at the time of the wreck about two blocks away on the 600 block of S Randolph Street, said police.
“Two civilians that were assaulted by another person and when police responded to that scene they saw someone who fit the description and they got into a foot pursuit,” said Small.
The suspect had knocked out a 26-year-old male landing him at Jefferson in stable condition and knocked the tooth out of another man as he exited Primo's Hoagies on South Street, said police.
