By Jose Pagliery and Jennifer Lebovich
Miami Herald
MIAMI — A Miami police officer slammed her marked police car into a van in Brickell early Wednesday morning, and, according to witnesses, stumbled out of her car clad in jeans and heels before officers arrived at the scene and gave her something to eat.
She was given a field sobriety test three hours later, several witnesses told The Miami Herald.
Several police closed off a portion of Southwest First Avenue after the 4:50 a.m. crash, which occurred near 10th Street. Police are now investigating what caused the crash. No one was injured.
The damaged van’s owner, Jose Victor Lewis, said internal affairs detectives suggested the woman may have experienced diabetic shock during the time of the crash.
Lewis, a regional manager at a finance firm, was in his office on the 23rd floor of the Brickell Bayview Center at the time of the crash. Lewis, who observes markets in the Middle East and North Africa long before dawn, was interrupted by the sound of a loud boom.
“It was like a bomb went off,” he said.
When Lewis looked out his window overlooking the avenue, he saw a tilted police car driving down the street with sparks shooting out its left side, he said. The car slowly drifted left toward the curb and stopped a block away. He then looked out another window to see where the loud sound came from.
He saw two security guards running up to his dark blue Dodge Caravan, which was parked near the curb in front of the building.
After calling 911, Lewis went downstairs and found the van’s damaged rear right end. Underneath his car was a flat Goodyear Touring SLE tire with a brake pad inside the wheel.
A block away: a three-wheeled police car with heavy damage to its front left side and a bright green plastic alligator on the dashboard.
Lewis said he ran up to the police car and peered inside but saw no one there. As he walked away, another police officer arrived -- just as the female officer who crashed into his car walked back to her police car, wearing blue jeans and a black shirt and stumbling as she stepped down the sidewalk, Lewis said.
Miami police have not yet released the identity of the officer, who they say is a city patrol officer. Miami police spokesman Willie Moreno said several details of the crash were unclear, including whether the officer was on duty or not.
“It’s unknown what caused her to lose control of her car,” Moreno said.
Lewis said the arriving police officer told the stumbling officer to identify herself when she approached the crashed police car. She then fumbled with her gray butterfly-print purse, letting a police radio fall out onto her car’s hood, according to Lewis.
The other officer then instructed her to sit down on the sidewalk, Lewis recalled.
Lewis said he voiced concerns about the woman’s sobriety to several officers who arrived later that morning.
Three witnesses said the officer was not given a field sobriety test until about three hours after the crash, after she was given food by police officers.
Copyright 2009 Miami Herald