THREE CRASHES IN A WEEK

November 18, 2009




A New York police cruiser driving ahead of US vice-president Joe Biden's motorcade has crashed into another car in mid-town Manhattan, injuring four people.

New York Police Department Lieutenant Mike Wysokowski said: At 5.30pm on Tuesday an advance element comprising three police cars with lights and sirens operating, was traveling west on West 49th Street when the second of the three struck a Lincoln Town Car.

"It was not the vice-president's motorcade," he stressed, noting that the police were running Biden's route "several minutes before the actual motorcade".

He said two officers and two occupants of the other car were woinjured unded but did not describe their injuries. Wysokowski said he was not immediately aware of whether the accident affected Biden's travel.

The vice-president was in New York for a taping of satirical news programme The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he made no reference to the incident, though he acknowledged that having the street cleared ahead of his motorcade was a welcome perk.

"Hell, I've never driven in New York with no traffic before," he said.

The crash is the third in a week involving the vice-president's motorcade or Secret Service detail.

On November 11 the Washington Post reported that two cars normally part of Biden's detail hit and killed a pedestrian in Maryland and on Monday the Alberquerque Journal reported that a deputy sheriff escorting the vice-president's motorcade in New Mexico was hit and injured by a car. - AFP