Crash During Calif. Police Pursuit of Moped Probed

Nov. 15, 2012
An East Palo Alto motorcycle cop who crashed into a car last week was chasing a man on a moped.

An East Palo Alto motorcycle cop who crashed into a car last week -- sending its driver to the hospital -- was chasing a 22-year-old man on a moped who wasn't wearing a helmet and had no license plates, lights or mirrors, the city's police chief confirmed Wednesday.

"When the driver made eye contact with the officer, before the officer attempted to conduct the stop, the driver immediately began to speed up in excess of the speed limit and weave in and out of traffic, almost causing a collision," Chief Ron Davis wrote in an email Wednesday. "That is when the officer activated his lights and siren and attempted to stop the moped."

Other details about the chase, as well as the question of whether it was warranted, are still being investigated, Davis said.

The incident occurred on Nov. 5 at about 5:15 p.m. on the 300 block of Wisteria Drive near Gardenia Way. As the officer collided with a white Ford Taurus, the two-wheeled vehicle he was pursuing escaped, a police spokesperson said that night. Both drivers were taken to a nearby hospital.

Davis said it appears that the officer crashed into the Taurus, but the California Highway Patrol is conducting an investigation to determine who was at fault for the accident.

The driver of the Taurus, East Palo Alto resident James Hartley, 32, told The Daily News he believes the officer was chasing a youth on a minibike who was not wearing a helmet before crashing into his car. "Yeah, I saw him (minibike), he rode past me," Hartley said Wednesday. "He was going a little fast."

Hartley said he was taken aback by how fast the police officer was going in the residential area.

"This was in a crowded area of people, and the guy was going around 45 mph on a 25 mph street," Hartley said. "There are too many kids in that street."

The single father of a 5-year-old son said he now wears a neck brace due to the whiplash he suffered from the accident and also has back pain, as well as other injuries. He's also struggling to cover the financial costs of the crash, including $328 he had to pay to get his Taurus out of storage.

His car is not drivable, Hartley said, so he's without transportation while he waits for his insurance company to sort out his claim. Hartley said he has not been contacted by the East Palo Alto Police Department about the incident.

Copyright 2012 - Palo Alto Daily News, Calif.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

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