Teen hits police car while texting, driving

It was bad enough when a 17-year-old boy texted while driving. But when the boy then ran into a Homer cop, his day got a little bit worse. 

Homer Police in late July charged the boy with texting while driving and negligent driving.

According to a criminal complaint by Homer Police Sgt. Ryan Browning, Browning and Sgt. Dave Shealy encountered the boy at about 8:30 p.m. when police got a call of someone on the roof of the Pratt Museum blaring music. 

Browning took the lower or southern parking lot and Shealy the upper lot. When Browning pulled in, he wrote that he saw a silver sedan coming toward him at about 10 mph that didn’t slow down. 

Browning stopped and wrote that the driver looked at his cell phone and didn’t stop, even when Browning turned on emergency lights, his siren and an air horn. 

Browning also put his patrol car into reverse to avoid the crash, but the car kept coming and hit his front push bumper.

“Upon impact the operator looked up in a panicked state and put his phone down,” Browning wrote.

The crash tore rubber stripping on the patrol car and caused about $500 in damages to the boy’s car. No one was injured. 

Browning wrote that while he took photos of the collision, the boy said, “Texting and driving does kill.” 

Browning told the boy to come by the police station to pick up his citations, and he later came with his father.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.

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