Birmingham police cars collide; at least 3 taken to hospital

[dave911]

From the Birmingham News:


Birmingham police cars collide; at least 3 taken to hospital
Posted by rsims September 04, 2007 9:40 PM

At least three Birmingham police officers were taken to UAB Hospital tonight after two police cars collided downtown, authorities said.

The wreck happened shortly after 9 p.m. at Fourth Avenue North and 13th Street North, police said.

Details are unknown, but one of the cars was up against a light pole. At least one of the officers had to be extricated from the car by Birmingham Fire and Rescue.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2007/09/birmingham_police_cars_collide.html

 

[scanrfan]

BPD Collision

Wonder what the story is on the how and why it happend. Was at work and I did hear BFD dispatched. Don't think the Officer that was extricated was pinned as badly as they thought.

 

[SAR923]

I suspect they were both responding to a call with lights and siren and they just didn't see or hear each other. It was my biggest worry when I was on the job when we'd have S.O. units, fire, and EMS all responding at once with lights and sirens. You get to an intersection and can't hear the other code 3 unit and you end up plowing into each other. I hope the officers aren't seriously hurt.

 

[AlabamaWeather]

Video:
mms://video.wjla.com/abc3340/0905-police.wmv

 

[trace1]

And from NBC13:

Three Officers Recovering After Cruiser Crash

 

[SAR923]

Hmmm...after seeing the video, it looks like neither unit had their overheads activated so I think my original theory is out the window. Maybe two units responding to the same call code 2 and 3/4's without lights and siren, and neither saw the other one enter the intersection. It's called tunnel vision, where a high-adrenaline situation puts both cars on auto-pilot with bad results.

 

[RevGary]

I remember getting some info a couple years ago from a colleague with a large metro department in Georgia.

Any cruisers responding on north-south streets were to use 'yelp' on the siren console while cruisers responding on east-west streets were to use 'wail'. That way they could hear the alternate sound at intersections instead of another siren blending in wiith their own. If they turned, they would switch to the other mode. Seems logical - anyone else heard of that policy here in 'Bama?