Officers get minor injuries, driver gets the ticket
Published 12:00 am Sunday, September 7, 2003
Suffolk News-Herald
Three on-duty police officers injured in a car accident and foot chase late Friday were treated and released from Obici Hospital.
The accident happened around 5:50 p.m., when Officer D. Wiggins, driving a police cruiser, and Auxiliary Police Officer D. DeLoatch were responding to a call to assist another officer involved in a foot chase, said Lt. Debbie George, interim spokeswoman for the Suffolk Police Department.
Officer J. Craig was taken to the hospital after falling during her pursuit of a suspect, George said.
The car accident happened as Wiggins, while heading north on North Main Street with the car’s emergency equipment activated, attempted to make a left turn onto Finney Avenue. While making the turn, the police car slid into a 1977 Oldsmobile stopped in the left turn lane of Finney, George said.
The driver of the car, Barry Michael Green, 49, of Portsmouth, was not injured, George said. But Officer J.W. Griggs charged Green with habitual offender and improper display of license plate violations, she said.
The incident will be reviewed by the city’s accident review board, which is standard procedure when a city vehicle in involved in an accident, George said.