Officer hurt after pickup, London police van collide at core intersection

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One officer was hurt when a London police van collided with a pickup truck at one of downtown London’s busiest intersections on Thursday afternoon.

It was about 2:45 p.m. when police announced they’d closed the intersection of Richmond Street and Oxford Street due to the collision, backing up traffic in all four directions at the beginning of rush hour.

Free Press photos from the scene suggest a London police van was broadsided by a red pickup truck that sustained heavy damage to its front end. The investigation was ongoing, police said, and Const. Sandasha Bough said one officer was hurt and taken to hospital for treatment, though the extent of their injuries wasn’t immediately known.

Police said at 7:10 p.m. the intersection had reopened. A drone was used to assist in the investigation, police said.

20-year-old faces stunt-driving charge

A 20-year-old Windsor man has been charged with stunt driving after police in the community of LaSalle clocked his Buick Encore travelling 51 kilometres over the speed limit. 

Police said the vehicle was travelling 101 kilometres an hour in a 50 km/h zone in the 2300-block of Front Road Wednesday morning just before 7 a.m. The man’s driver’s licence was suspended for 30 days and his vehicle was impounded for 14 days, police said.

Stunt driving in Ontario includes travelling at a rate of speed 40 km/h or more over the speed limit if the speed limit is less than 80 km/h. If the speed limit is 80 km/h or more, stunt driving occurs when a vehicle is travelling more than 50 km/h over the limit.

bbaleeiro@postmedia.com