Officer en route to call hurt in crash

EMMETT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - A veteran Emmett Township officer was injured Thursday morning when his patrol car -- en route to a police call -- was hit by a truck in a Calhoun County intersection.

Officer Matt Skaggs had his lights and sirens going, authorities told 24 Hour News 8, when he was hit by the truck.

Skaggs' cruiser was almost out of the intersection at Michigan and Wattles roads when he was broadsided by a southbound pickup truck. The passenger side of the cruiser was hit with so much force, 24 Hour News 8 was told, it was pushed several yards southwest.  

Skaggs and another officer, in a separate car, were responding to an alarm at an area business. The other police car went through the intersection before Skaggs' cruiser did.  

"It's always good to kind of, after you've stopped or moved over to the side [of the road], to kind of sit there for a minute to re-evaluate your surroundings on what's going on," said Emmett Township Police Lieutenant Tony Geigle. "Because it's entirely possible that more emergency vehicles are coming."  

The Michigan State Police are investigating the accident. Geigle said that's policy in their department to avoid the appearance of impropriety.  

According to an MSP press release, the pickup, driven by a 41-year-old man, appears to have not yielded at the intersection to Skaggs' patrol car. The release also stated it was dark and rainy at the time, and each vehicle was traveling between 30 and 40 mph.

The officer was taken to Bronson Hospital for treatment. His injuries are not life-threatening. The driver of the truck and his 11-year-old son refused treatment at the scene. Everyone was wearing their seat belts.  

It's a scary situation that's all too common for law enforcement.  

"Statistically speaking," said Geigle, "police officers are killed more often in accidents involving motor vehicles than in some of the things people may think: Shootings and stabbings and physical assaults and things of that nature."  

According to a yearly FBI report, for at least the last three years available between half and three quarters of all police officers accidentally killed on the job nationwide died in car accidents.

In 2008, 39 of the 68 officers accidentally killed were in vehicle crashes. In 2009, 34 of the 47 accidentally killed were in car accidents, and in 2010 those numbers climbed to 45 of the 72 accidentally killed on the job.  

Each year, those numbers were higher than the number of officers killed by handguns. In 2008, that number was 25; it was 28 in 2009; and in 2010, 38 officers were killed by handguns.  

"Unfortunately it's a hazard of the job," said Geigle. "You have cars that are out there running 24/7. You have fender benders sometimes. We've been very fortunate that we haven't had officers seriously injured in quite some time as a result of an accident."   

24 Hour News 8 learned that the result could have been much worse. Skaggs is a field training officer who had a cadet assigned to ride with him just the week before. Geigle said if the crash had happened then, either Skaggs or a cadet would have likely been sitting in the passenger seat.

"Recently that cadet has been assigned to another [field training officer] as part of the [training] process," said Geigle. "So we're very fortunate that the cadet wasn't in the vehicle with him at the time."  

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For more information:

2008 statistics from the FBI:

• Feloniously killed
• Accidentally killed

2009 statistics from the FBI:

• Feloniously killed
• Accidentally killed

2010 statistics from the FBI