Last night we showed you the shocking and saddening video of a woman police corporal being knocked off her motorcycle by a police patrol which ran a stop sign.
Well, tonight we have more information about how police got it all wrong in their police report - but was it deliberate? Jules Vasquez reports:
This is the stop sign on Dean Street at its corner with Albert. Many drivers don't properly observe it and it has led to countless accidents on this corner.
On Wednesday October 22nd just before midnight police drove right through that stop sign - and right into the path of an oncoming and fast approaching motorcycle - which had the Right of Way.
It led to a major collision - launching Corporal Georgianna Bartley into the air, and then crashing hard to the pavement.
7News has obtained a copy of the police report which totally mischaracterized the incident. IT says the police mobile was traveling from South Street in a west-east direction - when actually they were a block away at Dean Street and moving in an east - west direction.
Additionally, it says they were traveling in the same direction as Bartley - when she collided into their fender - which, again, is clearly not the case. She was traveling north-south.
But one key detail in the police report is telling: it says Bartley's cycle was not registered, licensed or insured and that she also had no drivers license.
But in compiling the report, police never once came to Channel 7 to ask us for this video - maybe they were misdirected by the wrong accident location stated in the report.
But, the video also shows curious behavior by at least one of the officers. While two rush to her aid after the impact - the constable in the passenger seat, causally gets out, slowly puts on his SPU jacket, buttons it up, tidies himself up - and is in no rush to step towards the point of impact. He even seems to put something to his mouth while the officer driving tries to get his attention, he stays on the sidewalk unperturbed.
The officers take four minutes to figure out what to do with their colleague.
We cannot say if they called an ambulance - but they failed to establish a scene and determined that they will position the truck to take her to the hospital in the back seat.
Inexplicably, the driver turned off the lights on the truck, leaving it facing against the flow of traffic without even hazard lights as they put her in the back of the truck
They did that and spent three more minutes trying to figure out what to do with her motorcycle - which they eventually decided to leave on the sidewalk with one of the officers. The truck then drove away against the flow of traffic with no lights on.
The police report says that Corporal Bartley sustained a fractured right hip and complains of pain. Tonight, she remains hospitalized awaiting a complex surgery for a compound fracture.
So far, police have not indicated whether anyone has been served with a notice of intended prosecution
