Editor's note:
The video embedded in this story shows a high-speed crash between a police cruiser and another car that resulted in serious injuries to the occupants.
An Akron police cruiser on its way to back up a call last month ran through a red light on West Exchange Street and T-boned a Kia in the intersection at nearly 70 mph.
The Jan. 24 crash sent four people to the hospital, including the two officers in the cruiser. The driver of the Kia, who underwent surgery and was only released from the hospital last week, hit a third car near the Rand Avenue intersection after he was struck by the cruiser. All three cars were totaled.
The cruiser’s speed appears to violate a directive issued in November by Akron Police Chief Brian Harding that limits officers to speeds of no more than 25 miles over the posted speed limit, which was 30 mph on that section of West Exchange Street.
The cruiser was doing 68 mph before it struck the Kia, which had a green light on Rand Avenue as it attempted to drive across West Exchange Street just before 10 p.m. that Friday night.
The Akron police officer behind the wheel, 23-year-old Garrett Devore, may have also violated the state law that allows police cruisers with lights and sirens activated to go through red lights only after slowing down and watching for traffic “as necessary for safety to traffic.” The law states police are expected to drive cautiously “with due regard for the safety of all persons using the street or highway.”
Body-worn camera footage obtained by Signal Akron also indicates that neither Devore nor Coblentz were wearing seatbelts when they crashed — both were bleeding from their heads in the aftermath, among other injuries.
It is unclear if the crash remains under investigation by the Akron Police Department.
Chipotle bag may have been a distraction
The two officers, Devore and 36-year-old Ryan Coblentz, were parked behind the Chipotle near the University of Akron campus and had just picked up their food when they got the call for backup. In the moments leading up to the crash, the two officers appeared preoccupied with their Chipotle bag, which was placed on the center of the cruiser’s dashboard as they sped west through both red and green lights on West Exchange Street.
As the pair both move the Chipotle bag off the dashboard, footage from Devore’s body-worn camera records the speedometer on the 2023 Ford Explorer rise from 59 to 68 mph in the five seconds before the cruiser enters the Rand Avenue intersection. Dash camera video obtained by Signal Akron in a public records request shows the upcoming traffic light was visibly red during that whole period of time.
Devore’s right hand had been supporting the bottom of the bag as the two moved it off the dashboard. His hand returned to the steering wheel just a fraction of a second before the cruiser plowed into the car and he did not move the steering wheel before impact.
Rand Avenue intersects West Exchange Street immediately west of the Akron Innerbelt (state Rte. 59) and Martin Luther King Boulevard overpasses. An embankment and the thick concrete columns supporting the overpasses would have made it difficult for the westbound cruiser and the southbound Kia, which had the green light, to see each other well in advance of the intersection.
Harding, the police chief, issued the order limiting speeds in November after a cruiser doing 74 mph swerved to avoid a car making a U-turn and crashed into a parked car on West Market Street in Highland Square, setting off a chain reaction that damaged three other parked cars.
APD policy has long required that emergency vehicles drive with “due regard” for safety — in the new directive, Harding specified that “due regard” meant no more than 25 mph over the speed limit without approval from a supervisor.
Akron Police Department policy also dictates that the seriousness of an emergency call should be factored into the speed officers drive when responding. No incident report exists for the call the officers were responding to, according to a response from the City of Akron to a public records request.
KIA driver seriously injured in crash
Among a number of serious injuries, Coblentz hit his head on the windshield as the Ford Explorer collided squarely with the blue Kia’s front, driver’s side door, causing what the officer later said in a social media post was a brain bleed and a significant spider-web break of the thick, treated glass.
Dash camera video that kept recording after the crash captures a group of Akron Fire Department first responders trying to extract the 63-year-old driver from the Kia. It appears medics were able to get him onto a stretcher and into an ambulance roughly 16 minutes after the crash.
Three minutes after the crash, the dash camera records police radio traffic indicating that the driver was “breathing, but not responsive” when first responders reached him.
The APD press release said the driver “sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries” and was transported to a hospital. The law firm now representing the driver told Signal Akron that the crash broke several of his ribs, fractured his pelvis, and fractured his back. He underwent surgery and spent weeks in the hospital, only recently returning home.
The APD stated in a press release that both officers were taken to the hospital “with arm and knee injuries, respectfully.” The injuries were apparently much more significant than originally implied, and both officers are still recovering.
Both officers were bleeding from the head, according to statements recorded on their body cameras. Coblentz’s uniform was soaked in blood, and the officer immediately told first responders that his leg and arm were broken. On social media, he said his brain bleed was only temporary but that he broke the radius bone in his forearm, broke his knee cap, and ruptured his patellar tendon in his leg. He had two surgeries hours after the crash, he wrote.
Devore’s status is less clear. APD spokesperson Captain Michael Miller said Devore has not returned to full duty but wouldn’t elaborate on his injuries to respect his medical privacy.
City’s insurance carrier says it’s immune from damages
After the Kia was hit, the car drove into a parking lot and swung back onto West Market Street, striking and totaling a 2008 Mercedes sedan before finally stopping.
The driver of the Mercedes, Ian McAllister, told Signal Akron he was extremely confused about the circumstances of the crash. The Kia that spun out of control before re-entering the road and hitting him was still accelerating after colliding with his door, he said. He was able to move his car, and the Kia drove across the street and came to a stop (it’s unclear if the car crashed again or stopped on its own – police radio traffic indicated the Kia driver was unresponsive when first responders reached him).
“I was very much shook by the whole thing,” McAllister said.
The APD press release said McAllister wasn’t injured. But McAllister told Signal Akron that he went to the hospital the next day and is still feeling the impacts from the collision.
“I can feel it in my body right now,” he said in a Feb. 14 interview.
The now-totaled car was registered to McAllister’s partner, Ilenia Pezzaniti, and the pair are left without a vehicle as they navigate a complicated process seeking answers from their insurance company and the city.
Pezzaniti said she called the city’s insurance carrier, which told her the city is immune from damages resulting from their response to an emergency call. The city and its insurance company similarly avoided paying after the earlier crash in Highland Square, despite the finding that the officer was at fault, because the officer was responding to an emergency call
The law firm representing the Kia driver also said that the city is claiming immunity from liability.
The aftermath has been even more frustrating for Pezzaniti and McAllister because the APD has still not provided them with any report, which her insurance company needs for her claim, and they are relying on expensive Uber rides for transportation in the meantime.
“We don’t have a lot of options, and we are running out of money,” Pezzaniti said. “I’m glad that nobody died — that’s the most important part, obviously — but now we have to pick up the pieces when we weren’t at fault.”
