A Winter Haven police officer and another driver were injured in a violent crash on Cypress Gardens Boulevard in the early morning hours of Nov. 2.
According to a news release from the Winter Haven Police Department, the officer was responding to a possible armed disturbance with emergency lights flashing about 2:20 a.m., heading east on Cypress Gardens Boulevard. As the officer entered the intersection with 1st Street South, a 2019 Honda Accord traveling south on 1st Street struck the officer’s patrol vehicle.
Winter Haven police said the Accord was traveling “at a high rate of speed.” It struck the police Chevy Tahoe on the driver side, sending both vehicles careening to the southeast corner of the intersection near the parking lot of Dutch Bros.
The officer was taken by ambulance to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center. The 21-year-old driver of the Accord, the only person in the car, was taken by helicopter to LRH, police said.
Police declined to release names of the officer or the driver of the Accord, referring requests for more information to the Florida Highway Patrol, which was investigating the crash.
Jamie Brown, the department’s public information officer, said it appears the officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries. No information on the other driver was available. Cypress Gardens Boulevard was closed for several hours.
It’s the third crash in less than a month involving emergency vehicles in Polk County.
On Oct. 7, an 83-year-old Winter Haven woman died after she pulled in front of a Polk County Fire Rescue ambulance while it was responding to an emergency on Spirit Lake Road in Winter Haven.
On Oct. 12, five people were injured, including one trauma alert patient, when a Polk County Fire Rescue battalion chief in emergency mode collided with a vehicle at County Road 640 and Mimosa Avenue in Bartow.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Winter Haven police officer, 21-year-old driver rushed to hospital after serious crash
Reporting by Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
