Baltimore City Police
Departmentals

'CRASH SQUAD' CARS ARRIVE FOR POLICE

2 February 1938

The Sun (1837–1989); Feb 2, 1938; p. 7

'CRASH SQUAD' CARS!

Arrive for the police!

New Autos, To Probe All Accidents,

To Go Into Service When Equipped

Crews Will Test Brakes of the machines involved and Photograph Scene Three automobiles for the "crash squad" of the Police Deportment have arrived and will be placed in service as soon as they are equipped, Capt. Henry C. Kaste, head of the Traffic Division, announced yesterday. The machines will investigate all automobile accidents and will have decelerometers for testing the brakes of cars involved in crashes, as well as photographic equipment for recording the actual conditions after the accident

Two-Way Radios

They will have two-way radios, sirens, and blinking red lights to enable them to get to the scene before the positions of the cars have been altered. The crews, graduates of the University of Maryland's Traffic School, will render aid to the injured and will reroute all traffic until the conditions have been photographed and measured.

Officials hope to relieve the foot patrolmen of responsibility for traffic accidents. Members of the "Crash Squad" will be given two days and a month in traffic court to handle their cases, and the new manner of collecting evidence is expected to result in more convictions, particularly in fatal accidents.

Squad Still Nameless

Serge. Clarence O. Forrester is head of the squad, which is still officially nameless. Other cities with similar departments have decided upon "Accident Investigation Department" for a title, and it is expected that this choice will be made here also.

The "crash squad" was organized according to a report from the Baltimore Safety Council in April 1937, which recommended it as "a vital need for the securing of evidence." In conjunction with the council's report, the grand jury urged the squad's creation as a means of reducing accident fatalities and injuries.

Nice Committee Calls Three Traffic Experts

Three traffic experts will appear before Governor Nice's automobile insurance committee at a meeting to be held at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Emerson Hotel. They are: Dr. S. S. Stineberg, Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Maryland, is conducting the traffic school there. John P. Rostmeyer, director of the Baltimore Safety Council. Preston D. Callum, chairman of the Baltimore Traffic Committee. The committee was named by the governor shortly after the first of the year to make a study of automobile insurance in the state and to make recommendations to him and the next general assembly.

Members of the committee are:

George W. Baulk, chairman, and W. Harry Haller, of Frederick, representing the insurance companies. John T. Shipway, of Flintstone; Jos. Eph S. Bigelow, of Annapolis; and J. Francis Rahlke, of Westminster, representing businessmen. Max Sokol, secretary, and Robert R. Carmen, representing the legal profession. The last Legislature passed a resolution calling for the appointment of the committee.

Sun Paper PicSun Paper PicSun Paper PicSun Paper Pic
Radio Policeman Hurts In 70-Mile-an-Hour chase Car Skids Crashes 

Into Speeder On Hanover Street A radio car patrolman is recovering today from serious injuries received when his scout car crashed into a machine on the Hanover Street bridge during a seventy-mile chase after a speeding driver. The policeman, Robert Rice Thirty-eight, and Gardner Sparhawk, first block of Wheeler Street, driver of the other machine, are under treatment in the South Baltimore General Hospital.

CAR SKIDDED

Patrolman Rice said that he was alone in the radio car when he saw a car speeding past the intersection of Hanover Street and Reedbird Avenue. He gave chase and had nearly caught up with the car when his car skidded on the bridge and crashed into Sparhawk's machine.

HEAD INJURIES

Patrolman Edward L. Sewyer had left the scout car a moment before the chase started. Had he been in the car, he probably would have been killed, for the right side of the car was demolished. Rice and Sparhawk received head wounds, and the patrolman is also suffering from internal injuries. This is what happened to the scout car driven by Patrolman Robert Rice when it skidded into another machine on Hanover Street Bridge last night. Patrolman Rice was pursuing a speeding· motorist at 70 miles an hour. The patrolman was seriously injured. Photograph copyright, 1938, by The Baltimore New-Post. All rights reserved.

Sunpaper pic

Baltimore police
23 November 2014
12 O'Clock Boys
Three officers seriously wounded
Officer 'fighting for his life' after pursuit police said should have stopped

One Baltimore police officer remained in grave condition Monday after the patrol car he was in slammed into a telephone pole Sunday afternoon after continuing a pursuit his commanding officer had called off.

A female officer, who was also in the car, remained in critical but stable condition with broken bones. The crash also involved the driver of a moped police said the officers had pursued, who was also injured and is hospitalized.

"One officer at this moment is fighting for his life at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center," Baltimore Police Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said.

The crash occurred about 1 p.m. Sunday in Northwest Baltimore. The incident began after an officer saw a group of dirt bikers assembling in an alley, police said. Upon being spotted by police, the riders fled on their bikes, except for one man, who ran. The officer followed in his marked patrol car and saw the man hop on the back of a moped that stopped to pick him up.

Patrol officers in the area caught and lost sight of the pair on the scooter at various times, Rodriguez said. Spotting it, three officers in a patrol car gave chase, Rodriguez said. The scooter at that time was only carrying a driver.

Baltimore police have a strict policy that allows officers to pursue if the vehicles they are chasing carry suspects who pose immediate and serious threats to the public. Officers must get permission from a shift commander to pursue.

In this case, a sergeant told the three officers to discontinue the chase, Rodriguez said. Fifteen minutes later, officers called for paramedics, he said.

The patrol car had continued the pursuit and crashed into a telephone pole in the 2200 block of Kirk Ave. after the scooter made a hard turn into an alley, police said.

Rodriguez said police don't know why the officers disobeyed an order to stop.

"We want to know why," Rodriguez said. "We have more questions than answers, but we are attempting to get those answers."

Rodriguez said forensics investigators and members of the police's CRASH team were called to retrace the moments preceding the crash. A police helicopter was also used to survey the crash site and map the route the pursuit had taken.

The third officer in the patrol car, a man, was not hurt. Rodriguez said investigators want to know why three police officers were in the patrol car. Marked cars are meant to carry no more than two officers.

While dirt bikes are illegal in the city, the moped was a licensed city vehicle, Rodriguez said. Fleeing police was the only violation the driver could be cited for, he added. No charges have been filed against the rider.

Baltimore Police's Force Investigation Team, which reviews shootings and other serious incidents in which police force is used, is investigating.

Police did not release the names of the moped driver or the three officers, who, Rodriguez said, ranged in experience from a few years to about a decade on the job.

Police said the dirt bikers had assembled in the alley to attend a large motorcycle rally that was held a few hours later.

Scores of dirt bikers and spectators took to the streets around Druid Hill Park on Sunday afternoon for a memorial ride in honor of Devin Rankin, known among riders as "Lor Dev." Rankin was shot to death Thursday in the 4600 block of Mannasota Ave. in a killing that remains unsolved.

Some on social media referred to him as the "no-hands king" because of his ability to ride on one wheel without steering. Copyright © 2014,

Courtesy Officer Howard Smith
Courtesy Officer Howard Smith
Courtesy Officer Howard Smith
Courtesy Officer Howard Smith

COURTESY SGT. ROBERT FISCHER

 CRUISING PATROL 10-7
PADDY WAGON MAKES IT'S LAST 10–14 RUN

Photo courtesy Officer Bill Edgar

Photo courtesy Officer Bill Edgar

Several wrecked Baltimore Police vehicles sit on a storage lot at the Dickman Street garage