Two Police Officers, Three Civilians Hurt In West Side Crash
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Five people, including two police officers, were injured overnight when a police SUV and a car collided in East Garfield Park, and there's a dispute over what caused the crash.
Just after midnight, a police squad SUV heading north on Homan Avenue and a black sedan headed west on Congress Parkway collided at the intersection, and the SUV flipped on its roof, landing about 100 feet from the intersection.
Police said the car struck the SUV, but the family of the woman who was driving the car said she had the green, and the police SUV ran a red light without using sirens or lights.
"My daughter and them is telling me that the light was green. They was sitting there. No siren, no lights were showing, or nothing. They did not see the police. They said they was going so fast, and when they hit them, they was just in shock," Tomiko Anderson said.
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Kerry Holoman, 20, said he was in the back seat, and they never saw the police vehicle coming until it was too late. He said it was speeding over the Homan Avenue bridge across the Eisenhower Expressway when it hit their car.
"She was at the red light, and when the light turned green, she hit the gas. We was going across the light. The cops just came out of nowhere, out of the red light, smacked us," he said. "They ain't have no siren. Then they said they was chasing somebody, chasing a car. So they didn't have no sirens, or nothing. They ran the red light."
Police said the woman driving the sedan was to blame for the crash, and traffic citations were pending Friday morning.
The 19-year-old woman who was driving the car and a female passenger were taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County. Holoman was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital. The two police officers were taken to an unspecified hospital. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening.
Tomiko Anderson claimed police officers harassed her daughter -- 19-year-old Tashawna Anderson -- at the hospital, and her daughter was given a traffic ticket.
Police said they do not suspect alcohol was involved.
