Williams: Road rules apply to everyone, even police

LaToya Carter says she never saw what hit her.

She had dropped a friend off early Friday morning and was turning left off Swanson Road to head eastbound on Hull Street Road. "I didn't see him at all," she said of Richmond police officer Mark Levy's Ford Crown Victoria. "As I was making a turn, I noticed something smacked my car . . . and his car went flying into the bricks."

Carter, 27, said the police cruiser did not have its siren activated and she saw no emergency lights. Levy walked over and checked on her before paramedics carried him away in an ambulance. And then, to her astonishment, "they came back and said, 'You have to get the ticket.'"

And that was the story, at least initially: Police charged her with failing to yield the right of way in the predawn wreck that had left a police officer hospitalized, his neck in a halo.

But Monday, police notified Carter that they were withdrawing the charge, she said. Richmond Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood said his department is continuing its investigation of the crash. And the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported yesterday that information on a computer indicated Levy was traveling 98 mph in his marked cruiser while responding to a Code 2, or non-emergency, call.

"I'm just glad that they've finally seen I was telling the truth the whole time," Carter said yesterday during an interview in the backyard of her mother's Randolph-area home.

She stood next to her maimed 1999 Chevy Malibu, whose front passenger-side tire, fender, bumper and mirror were smashed in the accident.

Carter, who works at the Tyson Foods plant in Hanover County, said she is undergoing treatment for lower back pain since the wreck and has not been able to work. She has hired a lawyer.

City police policy on Code 2 responses requires officers to obey all applicable traffic laws. Even under "life or death" Code 1 responses, state law requires police to use both the siren and emergency flashing lights -- one alone will not do.

Police also may not exceed the posted speed limit by more than 15 mph on city streets. The speed limit on Hull Street Road was 35 mph.

In 2007, the most recent year available, there were 371 fatal motor-vehicle crashes nationwide involving police in pursuit -- the highest annual total in a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration analysis that dates back to 1982. Virginia's total of 14 that year was also a high.

In 2006, Robert Allen, 75, and his wife, Juanita, 71, died less than a block from home when their car was broadsided by a Petersburg police officer speeding to a non-emergency call without a siren or lights.

The same fate could have easily befallen Carter -- or for that matter, Levy.

Carter must be aware of that, but she did not sound angry yesterday.

"It's sort of mixed emotions right now," said the petite Carter, whose tattoos include a set of praying hands. "I'm just worried about having something to drive and being able to get to work and stuff. And I'm glad everybody sees I was telling the truth."

If it's true that Levy was driving nearly 100 mph without a siren and lights, he should be stripped of his police cruiser privileges. The department's response must send a clear signal to officers and the public: Road rules apply to everyone.

Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or .