Traffic toll extends to OPD fleet

Source: Odessa American, TexasAug.自存倉 11--A wreck early Thursday morning offered a stark reminder.Odessa police officers investigated a wreck in the 1900 block of West Interstate 20 -- an increasingly routine assignment as accidents here surge with the oil boom's heavy traffic. Then this accident became two, when police say a car driven by 32-year-old Jose Luis Fino of Odessa collided with the rear of a K-9 unit that was parked with emergency lights flashing.The officer, who was outside of his Chevrolet Tahoe, was unharmed. Surprisingly, neither was the K-9 sitting in back. Fino, on the other hand, was taken to the hospital with what police described as potentially life threatening injuries.As accidents rise dramatically among the citizenry -- to an average of seven a day in the city -- they also rise among the Odessa police fleet. And it leaves police little recourse, apart from emphasizing safety and disciplining poor driving."Obviously we know the roads are increasingly bad," said Cpl. Steve LeSueur, the department's spokesman. "But we are trying to respond to calls."The Thursday wreck brought the total police fleet accidents since January to 16. Before the boom, there were at most a handful of police wrecks in a year, according to Equipment Services Director Doug Hildebrand , who oversees repair and maintenance.Precise increases are difficult to determine, he said, because the city changed its record system two years ago and did not keep old data. But the increases are noticeable not only in accidents seen among the OPD's 136 vehicles but the city's entire fleet of 722 vehicles, which also include fire trucks, garbage trucks and so forth."They're tearing them up faster than I can repair them," Hildebrand said.Patrol vehicles, by necessity, are on the road constantly, increasing the risk of a wreck. Many are minor, according to Cpl. Steve LeSueur, the police spokesman. Such as when a patrolman backed into another in January, causing damage so barely noticeable that superiors didn't even require them to fill out an accident report. Or when an officer parked at H-E-B, only to see its paint scraped by another motorist.Some accidents, however, are serious. Like the four-vehicle pileup on April 18 that sent two sergeants to the hospital after they were rear ended in an OPD Chevrolet Impala as they came back from lunch. In this case a driver for a Midland-based trucking company was found at fault.But sometimes fault lies with the OPD officers. There have been three fleet wrecks this year where investigators held an officer responsible for a crash, which, to the department's credit, Hildebrand said was about average in pre-boom years. A fourth investigation into an officer's potential fault for a May accident is pending, and police cited that as a reason not to provide details about the accident.Police kept quiet about the other accidents after they happened, but openly discussed them when a reporter saw the still-damaged Chevrolet Tahoe sitting with two others at a repair shop on East Second Street and Hancock Avenue. Police did not release the investigative files related to these accidents or provide information by press time about any internal disciplinary action against the officers, but they indicated they would do so in the coming days following a legal review.Here are the basic summaries provided by the department in response to an Odessa American inquiry:--At about 12:20 a.m. on Feb. 24, police reported 26-year-old offic迷你倉新蒲崗r Keith Almonte ran a red light as he drove westbound in the 600 block of East Murphy Street. There, his Tahoe reportedly struck a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt driven by Bernice Lopez, 27, who was driving northbound on South Muskingum Avenue. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Almonte, who was not hurt, had not activated his emergency lights.--At about 8:30 p.m. on May 22, officers responded to the 1000 block of North Dixie, veteran Cpl. Pete Gonzalez attempted to turn southbound in the 1000 block of North Dixie Boulevard while exiting a private drive, according to a police report. Gonzalez, assigned to warrants, frequently visits homes. This time, Gonzalez reportedly failed to yield the right of way and his Impala struck the passenger's side of an oncoming 2007 GMC Yukon, driven by Elisama Flores. No injuries were reported.--At about 9:59 p.m. June 1, 25-year-old officer Wilma Rodriguez performed a U-turn without activating her emergency lights as she headed westbound in the outside lane of the 5000 block of East 42nd Street, police say. In doing so, her Tahoe reportedly struck the front-right of an oncoming Ford F-150 driven by 38-year-old Bryan Patridge.None of the officers received tickets for the accidents, according to city spokesperson Andrea Goodson. It's standard OPD practice not to cite people in wrecks where both vehicles are in good enough shape to drive away, which applied to the Rodriguez and Gonzalez cases, said Goodson, whose husband is a traffic investigator for the department. In Almonte's case, the wreck investigator found conflicting witness statements did not justify writing a ticket even though police determined Almonte was at fault. Again, Goodson said that reflects standard practice."I think it's fair to say all three were treated just as if it were citizens involved an no officers were involved," Goodson said.When there's a fleet accident, Hildebrand said his people rarely know the cause -- their focus is returning them to service. If the accident's major, Equipment Services will contract with an outside agency for repair, as was the case with each of the Tahoe's at Epic Collision Services on Second Street -- the K-9 unit recently joined them.Hildebrand provides repair estimates to the Department of Risk Management, which in turn works with the city's insurance company Permian Claim Service. If there's a possibility of litigation, the Risk Management will review the accident and perhaps send it to lawyers, said director Darrell Wells.While the city couldn't supply figures by press time that show the cost of the accidents to the city, Wells said the Odessa insurance policy protects it from suffering a rate increase, barring a far more massive spike. "I've been here for 20 years," Wells said. "And it's never happened."He said the officers, however, are in the same lot as ordinary drivers after an accident, left to worry about their private insurance rates. And Odessa in handling its fleet is in more or less the same boat as an oil company."Whether you're a public entity or a private entity like Baker Hughes or Halliburton, when what you are doing is running a fleet, you face the same issues," Wells said. "A bunch of vehicles and a bunch of drivers."Contact Corey Paul on Twitter @OAcrime on Facebook at OA Corey Paul or call 432-333-7768.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) Visit the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) at .oaoa.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉出租