Police Car Collides with One Car and then into a House

PackingHeat · #1 ● 11-13-2011, 10:36 PM

So much for yielding.

The Tigard Police Department has released video from a collision that resulted in one of the agency's officers crashing into a Tigard home in early September.

The video is from the patrol officer's in-car camera and includes footage of the initial collision and the officer's subsequent crash into the home. The agency has had cameras in its patrol cars since 2005.

The department today said that the officer, 34-year-old Caleb Phillips, a three-year veteran of the agency, was not to blame in the collision.

Clyde Allen Rizzutto, 65, of Tigard, will receive a failure to yield to an emergency vehicle citation in connection with the crash, said Jim Wolf, Tigard police spokesman. The Washington County Crash Analysis Reconstruction Team investigated the collision, which occurred Sept. 3.

Following the incident, police released few details about the circumstances leading up to the crash, citing the ongoing investigation.

About 8:15 p.m., Phillips was reportedly responding to an emergency call off Southwest 135th Avenue, with his lights and siren activated. Phillips turned from Southwest Pacific Highway onto westbound Southwest Walnut Street, Wolf said, and he noticed a motorist down the road in front of him.

Wolf said Phillips continued, anticipating that the motorist, who was also westbound on Walnut Street, would pull to the right. The motorist, Wolf said, began turning left onto Southwest Watkins Avenue, as Phillips was beginning to pass on the left. Phillips then struck the motorist's car -- which was at about a 45-degree angle -- and subsequently crashed into a home, just off the intersection.

Investigators determined the crash was preventable, Wolf said, and that the motorist, identified as Rizzutto, was at fault. "If the motorist would have pulled to the right, there wouldn't have been a collision," Wolf said.

The resident of the home was not hurt and was reportedly in a different room of the house. No one was seriously injured.

Wolf said the department will have an internal crash review board evaluate the officer's actions.

"The board's priority will be to ascertain the preventability of the crash," Wolf said. "Also, based on their determination, what, if any discipline would also commence."