Officer injured in wreck

Keith Paul

Thursday, Jan. 4, 2001 | 11:05 a.m.

A Metro Police officer is waiting this morning to learn if he faces a possible lifetime of paralysis after a suspected drunken driver slammed into his patrol car on Interstate 215 Wednesday morning -- marking the second officer in the past two weeks facing long rehabilitation from a wreck.

University Medical Center doctors were waiting on test results to determine if Officer Armando Leija, 45, will have long-term health problems after breaking a vertebra in his neck during the 9:30 a.m. crash on the Las Vegas Beltway south of Warm Springs Road.

"He was obviously in a lot of pain from the broken neck," Sgt. Curt Albert of Metro's traffic unit said. "If the officer had been on the other side of the patrol car, he most likely would have been killed."

Leija, an officer for 21 years, had pulled over the driver of a pickup on the right shoulder and was walking to the passenger side of his patrol car after getting his license and registration.

"I reached over to close the glove compartment and heard the impact," Andy Jennings, the driver, said. "I got out, and the officer was lying in the car."

A white Thunderbird apparently struck the rear passenger side of the patrol car, sending the patrol car into the rear of Jennings' truck, police said. The car then scraped along the driver's side of the patrol car and spun to a stop in the middle of the roadway.

"The guy just sat there and kept trying to start his car," Jennings said.

Lawrence Ransom, 22, of Las Vegas, was taken to UMC for minor injuries. After he was released, Ransom was arrested and charged with driving under the influence with substantial bodily harm, police said.

Police arrived about five minutes after the wreck, shutting down the beltway. Leija was taken to UMC, and Ransom was given sobriety tests.

"The field sobriety tests indicated he was intoxicated," Officer Tirso Dominguez, a department spokesman, said.

Several drivers witnessed the accident and stopped until police arrived.

Leija's violent wreck comes less than two weeks after Officer Jeffery Roch was critically injured on Dec. 23, when a driver of a car pulled into the path of the police motorcycle Roch was driving. Roch struck the side of Deretha Holub's car. Holub was cited for failure to yield right of way, police said.

Roch underwent surgery to repair a ruptured aorta. He was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital.

Albert said officers are trained to protect themselves as best they can from passing motorists.

Officers are trained to use their patrol cars as barriers from passing traffic, Lt. Marc Joseph, a department spokesman, said.

"Traffic stops on the highway are much more dangerous than stops on (neighborhood) streets because of the speeds of the passing vehicles," he said. "Officers have the discretion of walking up to the passenger side window if they feel it is unsafe to go to the driver's side window."

The accident is still under investigation. Traffic was shut down on southbound I-215 for hours while investigators made measurements and took pictures of the wreckage.

Jennings stood on the side of the road for hours after the accident.

"I really was in shock," he said. "I was like 'What just happened?' "