TAMPA, Fla. — A Tampa Police Department patrol car flipped over Saturday morning after a three-vehicle collision with a Hillsborough Area Regional Transit bus and a sedan at one of East Tampa’s busiest intersections, sending three people to hospitals.
The wreck happened about 9 a.m. where North 34th Street meets East Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Department investigators said the patrol car was heading east on MLK while the HART bus was moving south on 34th. A man behind the wheel of a 2017 Dodge Charger was sitting still in the northbound lanes of 34th when all three vehicles came together.
The force of the collision rolled the police car onto its side. The officer driving it, a 12-year member of the department who was alone in the car, was taken to a hospital to be treated for a cut to the head.
Nobody on the bus was seriously hurt, according to the department, but two adult riders were taken to a nearby hospital to be checked out as a precaution. The Charger’s driver, who was alone in that car, hurt a leg slightly; medics looked him over at the intersection and he did not need a hospital trip.
Acting Police Chief Brett Owen said in a statement that the department was grateful the early reports showed no critical injuries and that his thoughts were with everyone involved.
Traffic investigators with the Tampa Police Department stayed at the intersection through the morning to piece together what caused the crash. The department has not said whether the patrol car was answering a call at the time, and no citations had been announced. Drivers who use the MLK and 34th Street corridor saw delays while the scene was cleared.
Section: More Tampa FL crime news
Filed under: Tampa FL Traffic News
