CHARLOTTE (AP) ó A North Carolina officer whose cruiser collided with another vehicle and killed its driver was going more than 90 mph without lights or siren when the crash occurred, police said.
State law and department regulations require police vehicles to obey speed limits unless their blue lights and siren are activated, The Charlotte Observer reported Tuesday. The speed limit where the accident occurred is 45 mph.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe called the wreck “an unfortunate and tragic incident” and promised a thorough investigation.
“It’s not something we take lightly or will investigate lightly,” Monroe said.
Police said Officer Martray Proctor’s vehicle collided with another car Sunday night at a north Charlotte intersection and killed Shatona Evette Robinson, 20, of Davidson. Four others, including the officer, were injured.
Monroe said witnesses told investigators that Proctor’s cruiser didn’t have it siren or lights on when it collided with Robinson’s 1991 Ford Escort.
Police said Proctor, 24, remained hospitalized with a broken leg and other injuries, but the others had been released.
Proctor was driving to help another officer who made a routine traffic stop.
“I can find no reason for that,” Monroe said when asked if he believed the officer should have been driving so fast. “There were no signs of imminent trouble in that (traffic) stop.”
The city had two similar incidents nine years ago.
City officials paid a $785,000 settlement to the family of a 23-year-old woman who died when a patrol car collided with the vehicle in which she was riding. The officer in that case was speeding with emergency lights and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor death by vehicle and resigned.
Also in 2000, Geoffrey Darwin, 33, died in a crash with a cruiser going 30 miles an hour over the speed limit. The officer wasn’t using flashing lights and resigned.
Monroe said the department hasn’t taken disciplinary action against Proctor, who joined the police force in March 2007.
Two of Robinson’s cousins were in the car and said they were leaving her mother’s home when the crash occurred. They said they didn’t see flashing lights or hear a siren.
“The car just had its headlights on,” said Wyatt Morrison, 18, whose lip was swollen and who had a cast on his arm. “I didn’t know it was a police car.”