Mat-Su

Palmer police officer driving patrol car strikes and injures pedestrian crossing street, troopers say

A Palmer Police Department officer driving a patrol car struck and injured a pedestrian crossing a street this week, troopers said.

The injured pedestrian was taken to the hospital with injuries that Alaska State Troopers described as not life-threatening.

The pedestrian was walking west on Bogard Road at Green Forest Drive on Thursday morning “when they attempted to cross the roadway suddenly and into the path of the PPD vehicle,” according to an online report from troopers. The agency was notified of the incident around 9:49 a.m.

Troopers spokesman Tim DeSpain said “the pedestrian failed to yield the right of way on a roadway with no crosswalks or signals.”

While the Palmer police officer tried to avoid hitting the pedestrian by driving into the wrong lane, according to troopers, the pedestrian was still struck by the right front side of the patrol car.

A trooper investigated the collision, and the police car was traveling “at or below the speed limit,” DeSpain said.

When reached by phone, a representative from the Palmer Police Department declined to provide additional information about the incident and told a reporter to fill out a public records request form instead.

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