DPS vehicle rolls, lands on its top after driver suffers medical issue
The quick thinking of a passenger in an Arizona Department of Public Safety SUV helped avoid more serious injuries when an officer suffered a medical condition and wrecked the vehicle, police said.
The rollover wreck was reported near 15th Avenue and Monroe Street at about 9:20 a.m. Friday.
Witnesses said the DPS SUV collided with at least three other cars and that a male DPS officer and a woman were inside the SUV at the time of the wreck.
A DPS spokesman said the officer was with the Capitol police bureau and that he was taking an employee on a ride-along Friday morning when the crash occurred.
The employee noticed the DPS officer was having some sort of medical emergency as he slumped in the seat and his foot hit the accelerator, according to Sgt. Jon Howard, a Phoenix police spokes- man.
The vehicle began to speed down the roadway heading toward an intersection with a concrete wall at the end, Howard said.
In an attempt to avoid a traumatic collision, the passenger made a split second decision to swerve into some parked and unoccupied cars along the roadway, according to Howard.
The woman grabbed the steering wheel and swerved, striking three or four parked cars before the DPS vehicle rolled over in the roadway, Howard said.
Both the officer and the passenger were able to get themselves out of the SUV shortly after the collision, witnesses said.
The DPS spokesman said the officer and his passenger were taken to a hospital in serious condition but with non-life threatening injuries.
The 46-year-old DPS officer has four years of service and the 25-yearold employee has been a dispatcher for one year, officials said.