Friday, July 18, 2003 | 11:11 a.m.
A pedestrian was killed this morning when he ran out in front of a North Las Vegas Police patrol car that was responding to a call of a prowler on Lake Mead Boulevard near Eastern Avenue.
The patrol car hit the unidentified man, who was a block from a crosswalk, and carried him more than 60 yards on the hood of the car before it stopped. The man was dead at the scene.
As a result of the 2:20 a.m. accident, a prowler in the 3000 block of Wright Street, just a couple of blocks away, escaped after the original responding police officer surprised him.
The two patrol cars that were responding to back him up remained at the accident scene, rerouting traffic, North Las Vegas Police said.
It was the third accident involving police officers in the past 24 hours, and the second in which a civilian was killed.
"It appears to be pedestrian error," North Las Vegas Police Department spokesman Officer Justin Roberts said, noting that the officer was uninjured and that both the officer and the victim were tested for alcohol and drugs. Toxicology reports generally take about two weeks to return.
The other fatality occurred shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday on Interstate 15, northbound near Apex, and involved four additional injuries. A Nevada Highway Patrol trooper was cut on the hand by flying debris in the three-car crash in which one of the cars was airborne.
The accident took the life of a 56-year-old California woman who was a passenger in a car driven by her 17-year-old daughter, who also was injured and in stable condition today at University Medical Center, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper spokeswoman Angie Wolff said.
Their car, a white Toyota, drifted from the left lane into the median, overcorrected and hit a northbound gray Chevrolet in the center lane, sending both cars spinning and crashing into the right retainer wall, with the Toyota cartwheeling over the Chevrolet and hitting the trooper's car, Wolff said.
The trooper's car had been parked in the breakdown lane as the trooper helped a California family in a station wagon that had broken down. The two people in the Chevrolet, both New York residents, suffered minor scrapes from their airbag deployment and declined treatment, Wolff said.
The 17-year-old driver was not immediately cited pending the completion of the investigation.
The third officer-involved accident occurred when a Metro Police officer in Indian Springs, en route to a call, swerved to avoid hitting a coyote in the road. He went off Cold Creek Road west of U.S. 95 about 10:30 p.m. Thursday.
The officer was trapped in his sport utility vehicle and a rescue helicopter was dispatched to the scene. His injuries were minor so the helicopter was canceled. The officer was treated at the scene after he was freed from the vehicle, Metro spokesman Jose Montoya said.
The North Las Vegas accident today tied up early commuter traffic that was rerouted from Lake Mead Boulevard to side streets.
Roberts said two police cars and two civilian vehicles were traveling eastbound on Lake Mead, with the police cars not using their flashing lights or sirens. He did not know at what speed the patrol cars were traveling.
"According to witnesses, the man appeared to stop in the middle of the road, then hesitate as to whether he should go or stay," Roberts said.
The two civilian cars stopped while the police car, traveling in the right lane, swerved but hit the man with his right front bumper, causing the man's head to hit the passenger-side windshield, Roberts said.
"He was probably killed on impact," Roberts said, noting that the man, who was not in a crosswalk when he was struck, eventually rolled off the patrol car about 40 feet before the police car came to a stop.
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