By Erin Ailworth and John M. Guilfoil
The Boston Globe
LYNN, Mass. — Two Lynn police officers were injured, one of them seriously, after the police cruisers they were driving collided at an intersection at around 12:45 yesterday morning as they responded to an emergency call, police said.
Officer Gregory Leblanc had to be extricated from his vehicle by rescuers using the Jaws of Life metal-cutting machine. He was flown to Brigham and Women’s Hospital with what police called “significant injuries.”
The driver of the second cruiser, Lieutenant Christopher Reddy, was treated and released from Salem Hospital with minor injuries, Lynn police said. Officials said the two cruisers collided in such a way that Leblanc’s vehicle ended up on top of Reddy’s.
The accident occurred at the intersection of Chestnut Street and Western Avenue. The two officers were responding to reports of other officers on foot chasing a suspect with a handgun near Verona Street in Lynn. The suspect with the handgun got away, a police spokesman said.
Police did not say how fast the officers were driving at the time of the accident.
The crash is being investigated by Lynn police with help from State Police.
“I believe we’re assisting with the collision analysis and reconstruction,” said Trooper Eric Benson. “Once that report is complete it will be sent back to [the Lynn Police Department] for them to decide what course of action to take.”
Amine Aoude, owner of a Mobil gas station at the intersection, was working the night shift in a back room with security monitors when the crash occurred.
Yesterday, he replayed the video as he recalled the crash for a visitor. The recording shows several patrons at the front counter as police sirens are heard in the background. And then police lights flash past the window facing Chestnut Street, and then on Western Avenue. Seconds later, the boom of a collision is heard.
“Two cruisers!” one patron exclaims. “Those are two cruisers!”
“Call 911, call 911,” someone else says.
“They crashed together in the middle of the intersection. They ended up one on top of the other. It was a very bad accident,” Aoude said yesterday.
He said the cruisers were crushed. “I hope he’s doing good,” Aoude said of Leblanc. “I prayed all night.”
Reddy’s wife, Karen, said she learned of the accident when her husband called from the hospital to tell her, “I’m fine.”
“He is OK,” she said of her husband, who was resting at home early last evening. “He’s banged up and in pain, but he’s OK.”
She said they had not heard about Leblanc’s condition.
She said it was the first time her husband has been in a car accident like this in more than 20 years as a police officer.
“He’s totally committed to his job and this community,” she said.
In an unrelated accident about 15 minutes after the crash in Lynn that also involved a police cruiser, two Boston officers sustained minor injuries after a car veered into their lane on Soldiers Field Road in Brighton, police said. The officers swerved and rear-ended another car, police said.
The two officers were treated at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and released. The driver and passengers of the struck car were not injured, and the car that caused the accident was not found, police said.
Copyright 2008 The Boston Globe