No one was hurt in the third sheriff’s car accident this year

A Jackson County sheriff’s patrol car chasing a stolen vehicle Wednesday afternoon collided with a Cave Junction woman’s pickup truck, fouling traffic at the intersection of Table Rock and Biddle roads.

Deputy Gordon Crisp ran the intersection’s red light heading south on Table Rock into Medford, police said. His vehicle’s lights and sirens were on, but 50-year-old Arlene Couch said she didn’t see or hear the deputy’s green and white car until it was too late. Couch’s red GMC pickup smashed into the rear passenger end of Crisp’s Crown Victoria.

"I was just going with the flow. I wasn’t speeding," Couch said, adding that she thought police weren’t supposed to conduct high-speed chases because they’re too dangerous.

"You shouldn’t go barreling through an intersection that’s so busy like this without at least slowing down," she said.

Crisp was not injured. The airbag in Couch’s vehicle gouged two deep scratches on her right forearm.

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Deputies stopped the stolen vehicle.

Crisp is the third deputy this year caught in a collision while responding to an emergency call. Sheriff Mike Winters was at the scene Wednesday but deferred all comments to Oregon State Police troopers conducting the crash investigation. OSP had not determined who was at fault for the 4:17 p.m. wreck and needed to speak to more witnesses, said Lt. Tanya Henderson.

A sheriff’s deputy was cited and another was cleared in previous collisions this year. Deputy Jennifer Farmer made a U-turn into the path a Dodge utility truck driving on Highway 62 near Eagle Point. Farmer received a ticket for failing to yield when entering a roadway for the Jan. 24 accident.

Deputy Randy Arnold was found not at fault for an Aug. 9 crash at Ingalls and Harlan drives in White City. The other driver, 61-year-old Rosanetta Cloud, failed to yield the right-of-way to Arnold’s marked cruiser, investigators said. She suffered numerous broken bones and was hospitalized for several weeks. His emergency lights flashing, Arnold was driving about 35 mph in a 25-mph zone.

Oregon law allows police cars to run red lights and stop signs if the vehicle’s lights and sirens are activated. However, studies conducted at the state’s police academy show that sirens aren’t very audible to the average driver, said Sgt. Jim Hamilton of the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety. Hamilton is also a police academy driving instructor.

A change in sheriff’s department policy following Winters’ election in 2002 has allowed deputies to rush to more emergency calls using lights and sirens. Policies under former Sheriff Bob Kennedy strongly discouraged such pursuits, Kennedy said.

Sheriff’s deputies have been in a total of 17 on-duty crashes this year and last year, according to county statistics. Not all of those involved another car. The department reported five crashes total in 2001 and 2002 before Winters took office.

Yet deputies are driving to more calls than ever before, Winters said in an earlier interview. The department logged more than 26,600 cases last year compared to 21,950 in 2002. Responses increased another 6 percent during the first six months of this year, he said.

Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail slemon@mailtribune.com