A Mobile police officer was taken to a local hospital and released after being involved in a three-vehicle collision while responding to a call, according to the Mobile Police Department.
The officer was driving west on Dauphin Street in a marked patrol vehicle around 9 a.m. when the crash occurred at the intersection with Springdale Boulevard, said police spokeswoman Ashley Rains. A driver in another vehicle apparently did not notice the officer’s flashing emergency lights and pulled out in front of him. The two vehicles collided and then struck a third car nearby.
Paramedics checked the drivers of the other two vehicles at the scene, and both were released without being transported for treatment, Rains said. The officer was taken to a hospital as a precaution and suffered only minor injuries before being released the same day.
Police did not disclose the nature of the call the officer was responding to at the time of the crash. Officials said afterward that no criminal charges were expected to result from the collision, characterizing it as an accident rather than a case of reckless driving.
The intersection of Dauphin Street and Springdale Boulevard sits in a busy commercial corridor of midtown Mobile, near a cluster of restaurants and retail centers not far from Interstate 65. The stretch sees a steady flow of traffic throughout the day, and emergency vehicles moving through the area with lights and sirens are a regular occurrence given the number of first responders who use Dauphin Street as a primary route across the city.
Collisions involving responding patrol cars, while not common, do happen periodically in Mobile as officers navigate intersections against oncoming traffic that may not immediately clear the way. Local law enforcement officials have periodically reminded drivers of the legal obligation to yield to any vehicle displaying active emergency lights, regardless of whether a siren is also audible. Alabama law requires motorists to pull to the right and stop when they see flashing lights approaching from either direction, a rule aimed at preventing exactly the kind of last-second lane change that led to this crash.
No further details were released about the identities of the other drivers involved or the extent of any damage to the vehicles. The Mobile Police Department did not indicate whether an internal review of the incident was planned, which is standard practice for crashes involving on-duty officers regardless of fault.