HOUSTON – Two Houston police officers were injured Friday night after a wrong-way driver struck their patrol vehicle in downtown Houston, according to the Houston Police Department.
The officers were traveling westbound on St. Joseph’s Parkway at approximately 11:15 p.m. when a civilian driving the wrong direction down Travis Street, a one-way road, ran a red light, broadsided the marked HPD unit and drove it into a nearby bar.
The driver likely did not realize she was driving through a red light because she was traveling the wrong way and, as a result, there were no lights facing her direction, said Sean Teare, Chief of the Harris County District Attorney’s Vehicular Crimes Division.
Emergency crews had to cut one officer from the vehicle. Both officers were transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to officials.
Responding officers said the suspect showed minimal signs of intoxication and admitted she had consumed a few drinks. She told officers she had been driving to another club.
The woman was transported to an area hospital where she’s undergoing an evaluation for intoxication.
Teare said the woman could be charged with intoxication assault of a peace officer.
Lone Star Saloon, the bar damaged in the accident, was closed due to the pandemic.
“This is downtown Houston on Friday night,” Teare said. “It could have been much worse for just people standing on the side of the road, people coming in and out of that bar because they hit the absolute front door of that bar. If this had been a regular Friday night we’d be talking about a much much worse situation.”
Teare said detectives are reviewing surveillance footage, among other things, and an investigation into the accident is ongoing.
“We look at the aftermath and both of the cars and the damage to them and the damage to the property at this bar right here,” Teare said. “It is a miracle. And it’s really, rice nice to be here talking simply about an intoxication assault.”