POLICE CAR HITS BUILDING; OFFICER DODGES A TURNING VEHICLE

A Cape Girardeau police officer responding to an accident crashed his patrol car into a brick building Friday night after a vehicle he tried to pass started to make a turn in front of him.

Lt. Bob Ross said the driver, police Sgt. Bradley E. Moore, tried to avoid the car and crashed into Clark Wheel Alignment Co., 430 Independence.

"When he hit the curb," Ross said, "the car jumped up and he just went right on into the building." Moore said Saturday he was only "banged up a little bit" from the accident.

Moore's accident happened at 10:36 p.m. as he was traveling east on Independence toward Middle, police reported. The other vehicle, driven by a 23-year-old Cape Girardeau woman, was in front of Moore and began to make a left turn, said police.

The officer had his lights and siren on, police said, but it's disputed whether the other driver had used her blinker. Moore said an investigation into the accident is under way.

Lt. Randy Roddy, the investigator of the wreck for the police department, said accidents involving police cars are referred to the city attorney's office. Whether a summons is issued to the woman rests with that office, he said.

The accident Moore was responding to involved a vehicle that struck a utility pole and a Union Electric Building at Morgan Oak and Middle, said police.

Ross said the driver of the vehicle ran from the vehicle and attempted to flee officers. Police said early Saturday evening they were still seeking charges against the driver, a 26-year-old Cape Girardeau man, for driving while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident, and failure to drive on the right half of the roadway.

Clark Wheel Alignment owner Charles Bixler said the accident caused somewhere around $10,000 in damage.

"We're going to have to replace something like 23 feet of the wall," he said.

"There was some equipment that was damaged in there too. I noticed some things that were bent that will have to be replaced that we use for straightening frames and that."

The damage occurred in the part of the business where alignments are done on diesel trucks, Bixler said. The business will be open Monday with the exception of that area, he said, which is expected to be shut down for about a week until the damage is repaired.

Roddy said Saturday an estimate of damage to the police car was yet to be made. He said it was surprising the car hadn't sustained more damage than it did.

The damage included a broken windshield from falling bricks, he said.

Earlier this year, Clark Wheel Alignment was one of several businesses along Independence that reached a $120,000 out-of-court settlement as plaintiffs in a lawsuit with the city. The settlement was over damages from heavy flooding and storm sewer deficiencies in 1986.