3-Vehicle Crash Hospitalizes Texas Officer
Nov. 19-- A Lubbock police officer was in stable condition after he was admitted to Covenant Medical Center on Friday evening following a three-vehicle accident at the intersection of Slide Road and 50th Street.
Officer Joshua Gafford was transported by ambulance to the hospital around 6:30 p.m. for treatment of moderate injuries suffered in the accident, said Lubbock police Sgt. Eli Ramirez.
Ramirez said Gafford was following a fire truck en route to an emergency call farther north on Slide Road when the accident occurred.
Ramirez could not be specific about the cause of the accident involving a black vehicle, a minivan and the police sedan.
An adult and two children in the black vehicle suffered minor injuries, Ramirez said.
The minivan contained either four or five people, all transported to the hospital with minor injuries, Ramirez said.
One of the minivan passengers was a 6-month-old infant, he said.
The conditions of those other individuals were unavailable from the hospital because their identities were unknown.
At the scene, the minivan's front was partially caved in on the right side, and liquid leaked from the engine. An unidentified driver for Lubbock Wrecker, which towed off all three vehicles, said the liquid was likely antifreeze or some other matter from the engine, not gasoline.
The van rested about 100 feet north of the intersection with its two right tires perched on the sidewalk and about four feet from a light pole. A 2-foot piece of the van's bumper lay in the grass between the vehicle and the intersection.
Various items of debris were scattered in the intersection on the northeast.
Gafford's car sustained damage at the hinge of the front right panel and the front passenger door. The police cruiser's front right tire angled diagonally with the bottom portion of the tire sticking outside the frame and the top part leaning inside.
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