Sergeant: Driver ‘inattentiveness’ leads to recent crashes involving Dayton police cruisers

The crashes were nearly identical: Both cruisers were in the far right lane of a four-lane road, with two lanes for each direction. In both crashes, a vehicle driving the same direction as the cruiser in the left lane was waiting to turn left at the intersection, obscuring the view of the oncoming lanes for the other drivers.

In both crashes, a driver did not wait for the other vehicle to complete its turn so the view was clear, and instead entered the intersection and collided with a Dayton police cruiser.

In each crash, the officer was taken to a local hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening. In the Tuesday crash, the driver of the other vehicle also went to the hospital.

Both times, the cruiser sustained a smashed front end and with smoke from the deployed airbag curling up over the windshield. In the May 23 crash, the other vehicle, a black Jeep, rolled onto its side.

Cairns said in both crashes that the other drivers said they didn’t see the cruisers before turning left.

However, he said the other drivers should have waited until they could be sure there was no oncoming traffic before turning.

“This could have just has easily been any other vehicle on the road, a family, or anything like that, it just happened in both of these situations to be cruisers,” Cairns said.

One of the other drivers also had a suspended license and was not supposed to be driving, Cairns said.