Woman flown to hospital after collision during police pursuit
Fayette EMS were on scene of a vehicle accident involving a state trooper on Bute Road.
One woman was flown to the hospital and a trooper was injured following a collision during a police pursuit on Bute Road in North Union Township Friday before noon. According to state police Trooper Stefani Lucas, the woman was not involved in the pursuit. Lucas said the woman has a head injury and was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. The trooper was taken to Uniontown Hospital by ambulance.
One woman was flown to the hospital and a trooper was injured following a collision during a police pursuit on Bute Road in North Union Township Friday before noon. According to state police Trooper Stefani Lucas the woman was not involved in the pursuit. Lucas said the woman has a head injury and was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. The trooper was taken to Uniontown Hospital by ambulance.
One woman was flown to the hospital and a trooper was injured following a collision during a police pursuit on Bute Road in North Union Township Friday before noon. According to state police Trooper Stefani Lucas the woman was not involved in the pursuit. Lucas said the woman has a head injury and was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. The trooper was taken to Uniontown Hospital by ambulance.
One woman was flown to the hospital Friday following a collision with a state police vehicle on Bute Road near Oliver 3 Road in North Union Township.
According to state police Trooper Stefani Lucas, the woman was not involved in the pursuit.
Police said the incident began when the driver of a dark sports utility vehicle swerved out of his lane on northbound Route 119, nearly hitting a marked patrol car in the passing lane.
Lucas said the trooper initiated a traffic stop, and while the driver of the SUV initially pulled over, he then sped away. At some point on Route 119, Lucas said, the trooper and the man driving the SUV made a U-turn, eventually getting off of the Gallatin Avenue exit, and heading right onto Bute Road.
The trooper continued to follow the SUV onto Bute Road headed toward Connellsville, police said, and at some point, a second trooper joined in the pursuit. Lucas said by witness and police accounts, the pursuit reached speeds of 70 to 80 mph.
The trooper who started the pursuit and the man driving the SUV went around the car of the woman who was injured, Lucas said. The woman then tried to make a left turn, and the second trooper, who was in a marked police SUV, hit her vehicle, Lucas said.
The crash occurred just before noon.
The woman, who was not identified, was flown from the scene. Lucas said the woman has a head injury and was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia.
The trooper was also taken to Uniontown Hospital by ambulance. Lucas said the trooper, who was not identified, has a hip injury.
Police are looking for the dark SUV, possibly a Ford Explorer that fled the scene, and Lucas said police plan to charge the driver.
This is the second crash in Fayette County that resulted from a police pursuit in less than two weeks.
On Oct. 12, Christopher Anthony Kemp, 27, of Confluence was fleeing from police on Route 40 in Wharton Township when he allegedly crashed into a vehicle driven by Erik Yannitelli, 22, of Farmington.
Yannitelli was killed in the crash, and Kemp is in prison on criminal homicide charges. Speeds in that pursuit exceeded 115 mph, police said. The chase began, police said, because Kemp was driving without a license.
According to state police statistics, there were 7,366 state or local police pursuits between 2010 and 2014. Only three people not involved in the pursuit were killed.
Police were involved in crashes with vehicles not involved in the chase, in less than one half of one percent of all police pursuits in 2013 and 2014, with three such accidents reported statewide in each of the past two years.
Over the past five years 31 to 37 percent of all police pursuits ended with a vehicle accident, with about 13 percent of the accidents involving injuries.
According to the 2014 report, police pursuits resulted in 687 crashes, with injuries to 234 individuals including police officers, suspects and individuals not involved in the chase.