The Boston police officer who was driving a department vehicle during a June car crash involving Mayor Michelle Wu contributed to the crash by running a red light, according to a newly released police department letter.
However, though the letter conflicts with earlier police findings that the officer did not cause the crash, it also recommends that no action be taken against the officer.
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The crash happened on June 6 at the intersection of Hyde Park Avenue and Blakemore Street in Roslindale around 9:50 a.m., according to police records. A mother and an infant were in the other vehicle involved in the crash. Wu was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Boston police officer Keyanna Smith.
Video footage of the crash shows that the police vehicle stopped at a red light on Blakemore Street before driving into the intersection with the vehicle’s emergency lights on. The police vehicle is then hit by the other vehicle, which is crossing the intersection on Hyde Park Avenue.
What police records say about the crash
Boston Police Captain Leighton Facey wrote in a July 20 letter to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox that he believes Smith was “exercising her discretion with due care and regard” and following standard department practices when she ran the red light. He also writes that this is the first time the police officer has been found to have contributed to a crash.
Still, Facey writes, while Smith drove “slowly” into the intersection, ”by driving her vehicle contrary to the traffic signal, the officer did contribute to the accident.”
“I respectfully report that after reviewing the attached reports, I do not fully agree with the findings of Sergeant Detective Cary Chin in this investigation,” he wrote.
Chin wrote in a June 26 letter that he believes Smith was driving “in a responsible manner while operating her assigned unit department motor vehicle and obeying the traffic laws.”
“I find that there is no need for counseling or further investigation regarding this motor vehicle crash,” he wrote.
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According to police records, the other driver involved in the crash declined to speak to police about the incident through a lawyer. A witness described that person’s vehicle as “barreling” down Hyde Park Avenue, records say.
Additionally, Chin wrote in his letter that video of the scene shows the vehicle passing two cars that had stopped for the police vehicle, and that it didn’t slow down until just before the crash.
Police records indicate that the police vehicle had its sirens on at the time of the crash, but Mayor Wu told reporters previously that the crash did not happen during an emergency. She told investigators she was reviewing documents on her phone in the front seat of the police vehicle at the time of the crash and was not looking at the road.
What the other driver has said about the crash
Yosmery Peña told Boston 25 News that she was the other driver involved in the crash. She told the news station she couldn’t see the police vehicle before the crash because other vehicles were in the way.
“The car should have stopped and given enough time for the traffic to completely stop before it went through the red lights,” she told Boston 25 News.
After the crash, records say, both Wu and Smith got out and spoke to the mother, and Wu acted as a Spanish translator for her. Wu then accompanied the mother and child to Boston Children’s Hospital where they were evaluated.
When asked for comment on the crash findings, Wu’s office sent an audio recording from Thursday, Nov. 23 during which Wu said she is deferring any determination about the crash to the police department.
“I’m just thankful everyone is safe,” she said.
Boston police declined to comment on the matter Friday afternoon.
