Updated at 10:45 a.m. Saturday to reflect new information regarding the collision, including the arrest of the pickup truck driver. Police at the scene initially told Patch that the crash was not DUI-related.
A Redondo Beach police officer was involved in a crash with an alleged drunk driver on Inglewood Avenue at the intersection of 170th Street in Lawndale shortly after midnight Saturday.
The driver of the pickup truck, Lawndale resident Timothy Lindley, 41, was arrested under suspicion of felony DUI charges and is being held on $20,000 bail, sheriff's deputies said.
The collision appeared to total both vehicles, but no serious injuries were reported, police said at the scene. The unidentified Redondo Beach police officer was transported to the hospital as a precautionary measure, Sgt. Scott Weibel with the said at the scene.
"I'm not a mechanic, but I am pretty sure that car has seen its last days," said Weibel as he looked at the police car.
Lindley, who was not immediately arrested at the scene, told Patch that he was driving his red pickup truck back to his house just a block away. Lindley said that when he attempted to cross Inglewood Avenue from Voorhees, the police car hit his truck and spun him onto 170th Street.
"I was coming across the intersection here, and I got about to the last lane and the officer was flying down the side and hit me from the side and spun me around," said Lindley, who said he was not injured.
Lindley said he did not see any emergency lights on the police cruiser when it hit him. "There was no traffic coming when I was going across, and then I got a cop car hitting me," he said. "Luckily, I was wearing a seatbelt."
Lindley's pickup was missing both rear wheels after the accident and one tire was found sitting across Inglewood Avenue. "He knocked my wheels off... Where the [expletive] is my other wheel?" he asked, pointing to his truck.
Because the accident technically occurred in Lawndale, Weibel said that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will handle the investigation. Even if the crash occured within the Redondo Beach city limits, Weibel said it is routine practice to have an outside agency investigate incidents involving police officers.
