3 Injured When College Police Car Crashes Into Store

SAN DIEGO – A traffic accident sent a college law enforcement vehicle crashing into a Barrio Logan storefront Wednesday, leaving a pedestrian badly injured and two others, including a campus police officer, less seriously hurt.

The crash occurred shortly after 9 a.m., when a 27-year-old man driving a westbound 2017 Nissan Altima ran a stoplight at Cesar Chavez Parkway and National Avenue, according to the San Diego Police Department.

The car collided with a southbound San Diego Community College District police SUV, sending it veering onto a sidewalk on the southwest corner of the intersection, SDPD Officer Tony Martinez said. There, the cruiser struck a 34-year-old man before smashing into a commercial building.

Medics took the pedestrian to a trauma center for treatment of a compound fracture to his right leg and transported an employee of the store and the college policewoman for evaluation of minor injuries and complaints of head pain, respectively.

The owner of the damaged business, Ponderosa Deli Market, told NBC7 that he had been in the back of the store when the law enforcement SUV plowed into the glass storefront.

"Everything just pushed against me, and it was just my leg and my back, but I'm OK," Wade Battikah told the station. "Thank God I was in that corner, because everything came in."

– City News Service