Last week, a Michigan State Police officer was driving an unmarked Jeep Patriot when he ran a stop sign at an intersection in southwest Detroit. Running that stop sign put him into the path of a Honda Civic driving down the one-way street, which then crashed into the rear quarter of the Jeep, sending it spinning into a nearby driveway. The police officer then exited the car and arrested the Honda driver, seemingly to cover their own fault in the wreck. Too bad for the cop, it was all caught on video.
A house on the corner had a running security camera that caught the whole thing. You can see the police officer’s silver Jeep approach from the right, then continue through the intersection without even slowing down for the stop sign:
The way that Jeep just kind of flips into the driveway, seemingly normally parked, is pretty amazing, too.
There’s really no question that the cop was at fault here—this is precisely why you don’t run stop signs. Some commenters have speculated that the Honda may have been speeding, but the truth is we really don’t know, and, even so, running the stop sign was what caused this to happen at all.
The Honda driver was 27-year-old Carlos Martinez, who was made to drop onto his knees by the cop, who has not had his identity released.
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According to Fox 2 Detroit, Martinez’ mother reports that the cop said to Martinez
“All he kept saying was ‘you hit a cop, you hit a cop, you hit a cop,’ and at no moment say ‘how are you, are you okay,’” said Maria Martinez, Carlos’s mother. “No, they just handcuffed him like a criminal.”
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Also according to Fox 2, the Michigan State Police have so far not commented on the incident, citing that it is under investigation.
The police officer had a broken collarbone and rib, and Martinez was released to a local hospital to be treated for minor injuries, but has not been charged.
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As far as we can tell, being in an accident with a police car where the driver of the police car was at fault is not an arrestable offense in any state.
(via BoingBoing!)
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