Police cruiser hits cyclist in Ardmore
Lower Merion police are investigating a Wednesday morning accident in which a cyclist was struck and injured by a Lower Merion police cruiser on East Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore.
Lower Merion police are investigating a Wednesday morning accident in which a cyclist was struck and injured by a Lower Merion police cruiser on East Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore.
The collision occurred just before 9 a.m. as the cruiser pulled out of a parking place in front of the Toyota Dealership near where Chatham Road meets East Lancaster.
Police Sgt. Gene Pasternak, of the traffic safety unit, said the cyclist was headed westbound when the accident occurred. The cruiser was not en route to an emergency, he said.
Brad Paul, owner of the dealership, said that the man on the bike was a Toyota employee. Paul would not release the man's identity because his family had not been notified.
The man was flown by helicopter to the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, but his condition was not known. Pasternak said he did not believe the man's injuries to be life-threatening.
Paul said the employee was on a bike facing west on Lancaster Avenue when the cruiser, which was parked against the sidewalk facing north, pulled out and hit the worker.
A personnel and a crash investigation were initiated by the department immediately after the accident, Pasternak said. He said police were trying to learn if any surveillance camera captured film of the mishap.
The officer, whose name was not released, was not removed from patrol duty.
"We wouldn't take an officer off the street unless it was something really serious," Pasternak said.
