By Josh Baugh
The San Antonio Express-News
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Rosa Maria Flores and her family had barely begun the short trip from St. Ann Catholic Church to San Fernando Cemetery II, where they would lay her uncle to rest.
They’d celebrated Mass and begun the funeral processional with the requisite police escort when a freak accident stopped a portion of the group from making the trip to the cemetery.
Two off-duty San Antonio police officers on motorcycles had left the rear of the procession to move to the front, accelerating past vehicles on the left. But a woman in a green Ford Explorer who apparently had accidentally entered the procession decided to leave it, attempting a left turn from Cincinnati Avenue to North Sabinas Street just as the officers were making their way forward.
Flores said the ensuing moments played like something she’d seen on the big screen.
“All of a sudden, I saw an officer flying in the air,” she said. “It was surreal -- like an action movie or something.”
Sandra Gonzalez, another niece, said she, too, saw officers propelled through the air, and several family members went to their aid.
“We immediately jumped out of the vehicles,” Gonzalez said. “One officer couldn’t move. The other was bleeding from his head.”
Police Chief William McManus said at the scene that the two officers were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. Both are veterans with more than 10 years of service, he said, declining to identify them until their families had been told of the accident.
The first officer, who was more seriously injured than the second, collided with the SUV and flew into the front yard of a nearby home, McManus said. The second officer laid down his cycle and skidded about 60 feet before striking the rear end of the SUV, the chief said.
McManus said police investigators will determine who was at fault. He was unsure Saturday whether charges would be brought against the SUV’s driver.
Dozens of officers arrived on the scene soon after the accident was reported. Yellow crime-scene tape cordoned off the intersection, and investigators began to study skid marks and other evidence scattered in the road. One motorcycle lay on its side, near a car parked in the street. The other lay in the shade of a tree, leaving a streak of oil and a mangled metal handrail in its path.
Surveying the scene, McManus said people always need to be aware of their surroundings.
“I think it was unfortunate that she was caught in a funeral procession and tried to get out,” he said.
Copyright 2007 The San Antonio Express-News