Collision With Police Car Prompts Suit

cop car lights at night
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As it appeared on The Citizens’ Voice

JAMES HALPIN

A Wright Twp. woman injured in a collision with a police car on Tuesday filed suit against the Wilkes-Barre Twp. Police Department.

Mary Ann Costello, of Kestrel Road, alleges she suffered a fractured rib, abdominal pain, a fractured foot and other ailments as a result of the collision at Mundy Street and Highland Park Boulevard the afternoon of Nov. 3, 2017.

According to the complaint filed by the Kingston law firm Fellerman & Ciarimboli, Officer Thomas J. Elick, driving a Ford Crown Victoria patrol car, was conducting traffic enforcement at the intersection and observed a vehicle run a red light while turning onto Highland Park Boulevard from Mundy Street.

Elick went after the scofflaw driver but “failed to follow the rules of the road” and in the process crashed into the driver’s side of Costello’s 2011 Nissan Rogue, which had been heading eastbound on Mundy Street.

The complaint asserts that Elick’s actions in chasing the car created “an unreasonable risk of harm to innocent bystanders.”

The lawsuit, which is seeking unspecified damages, names as defendants the police department as well as Elick individually.

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