Friday, July 10, 1998
Two Hamilton County sheriff's cruisers were damaged in a pair of unrelated crashes Thursday afternoon.
One deputy was hospitalized. Sheriff's investigators are looking into both crashes.
The first accident happened during a chase that started in Colerain Township. About 3 p.m., a sheriff's deputy was helping a Colerain Township police officer who had pulled over a wanted suspect on the Ronald Reagan Highway. As the suspect was being arrested, a passenger in the suspect's car took off in the vehicle, deputies said.
The deputy was chasing the vehicle along the highway when the driver made a U-turn near Winton Road and struck the cruiser. The fleeing car then drove east on the highway. The vehicle exited at Galbraith Road, ran a red light and struck two other vehicles, deputies said. The driver ran from the scene and eluded police.
A female driver of one of the vehicles struck on Galbraith Road was taken to University Hospital. Investigators were not releasing her name, nor that of the deputy.
Less than two hours later, a sheriff's deputy's cruiser was struck by another vehicle as the deputy was trying to make a U-turn in the 8300 block of Montgomery Road in Sycamore Township.
Deputy Philip Herbst and the driver of the second vehicle, Nichola M. Lutz, 20, of Loveland, were treated at Jewish Hospital Kenwood and released.
Deputy Herbst was trying to help another police officer at an automobile accident, sheriff's deputies said.
