Police investigating bizarre sequence of car crashes

Philadelphia police are investigating a bizarre sequence of car crashes in North Philadelphia early Wednesday, including one that injured two cops.

The two plainclothes officers were patrolling in an unmarked pickup truck around 2:15 a.m. They were driving south on Broad Street, near Brown, when a black sedan heading east on Brown hit their vehicle, said Capt. John Wilczynski of the Accident Investigation District.

The car did not stop and was last seen traveling south on Broad.

Shortly afterward, a driver in a white SUV traveling south on Broad, near the accident scene, suddenly jumped out of his vehicle, while the engine was still running, Wilczynski said.

The SUV drifted a bit before stopping at a curb. Two men who were hanging out there got into the SUV and stole it, Wilczynski said.

The stolen SUV went south on Broad, and later turned the wrong way, north, on 15th Street, where it hit a moving car head-on, then hit a parked car, and ended up hitting a traffic signal at 15th and Parrish Streets. The two men fled on foot.

No one was seriously injured in those crashes, Wilczynski said.

The two officers in the pickup truck were taken to Hahnemann University Hospital in stable condition. They were treated and released, Wilczynski said.

The officer who was driving had a head injury; his partner, who was sitting on the passenger side where the sedan struck, suffered shoulder and hip injuries, Wilczynski said.

Police are searching for the two men who stole the SUV, as well as the black sedan's driver, Wilczynski said. That car should have front-end damage, he said.

As for the man who initially jumped out of the SUV, he later told Central Detectives that he had seen a man on the street waving a gun and feared that he was in the line of fire, Wilczynski said. "So he panicked and jumped out," he said.

Police have not been able to verify the man's account of a person waving a gun, Wilczynski said.

shawj@phillynews.com

215-854-2592

@julieshawphilly