TAMPA, Fla. — A Hillsborough Area Regional Transit bus driver has been ticketed for running a red light in Tampa after the bus slammed into a marked Tampa police car and rolled it over at a busy East Tampa intersection.
According to the Tampa Police Department, the bus driver was ticketed for failing to obey a traffic control signal, the standard charge for entering on red. The officer in the patrol car was hurt but has been released from the hospital.
Investigators laid out the sequence this way. The bus was heading south on North 34th Street and sat behind an SUV at a red light. When the SUV turned right on red, the bus rolled forward too and went straight into the intersection while the signal was still red.
The patrol car was going east on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at that moment and had the right of way. The front of the bus caught the rear tire well on the driver’s side of the cruiser, sending it into a spin.
The police car ended up on its roof and slid into a white Dodge Charger sitting at the light. The Charger in turn was knocked over the curb, coming to rest against a short brick barrier on the east side of the street.
The officer was taken to a hospital with a head injury and back pain. Two passengers on the bus were checked by medics and released, and the driver of the Charger was treated at the scene for a minor leg injury. No one was critically hurt.
The crash happened around 9 a.m. Saturday at North 34th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, one of the main crossroads east of downtown. Police announced the citation Monday. The bus is part of the HART fleet that serves Hillsborough County.
Section: More Tampa FL crime news
Filed under: Tampa FL Traffic News
