A driver ran into a Park City Police Department sport utility vehicle on Main Street shortly after midnight on Jan. 1 as the officer driving the police vehicle honked the horn to warn the person he was drifting too close, the police said.
Rick Ryan, a Police Department captain, said the officer was driving southbound, or uphill, on Main Street and noticed the northbound driver appeared to be hunched down behind the steering wheel as the vehicle, an Audi, neared. The officer stopped the police vehicle and honked at the oncoming Audi, but the driver did not stop and hit the police vehicle in a slow-speed collision, Ryan said.
The captain said the person started to drive away, the officer got out of the police vehicle and yelled at the driver to stop. The person complied.
Nobody was injured.
Ryan said the police vehicle suffered approximately $2,500 in damage and was expected be out of service for a week.
Ryan said the driver told the police officer he was text-messaging when the accident occurred.
Collisions involving a police vehicle are “pretty rare,” Ryan said.
The Police Department requested a Utah Highway Patrol trooper investigate the accident since it involved a police officer. Todd Johnson, a spokesman for the Utah Highway Patrol, said the trooper charged the driver with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, failing to remain in one travel lane and text-messaging while operating a vehicle.
The Utah Highway Patrol did not immediately release information about the driver.
The Police Department heavily patrolled Park City on New Year’s in an effort to stop drunken drivers. Main Street was busy with New Year’s revelers.