Last July, a police officer was about to pursue a speeding car when he collided with a car turning left. The passengers in that vehicle died from their injuries, either at the scene or later in the hospital. The car accident is tragic, but questions lingered regarding the circumstances of the crash. Was the officer negligent in the build-up to chasing the speeding car?

An investigation into the crash has found that the officer was not watching the road - instead, he was checking a GPS device - and that he did not turn his emergency lights or siren on to notify nearby cars of his presence. The investigation also reconstructed the crash and found the officer to be going about 72 miles per hour before colliding with the other car.

Preceding the car accident, the officer maintained that he turned on his emergency lights but not his siren. That was supported by the investigation, but at least three witnesses contested that finding. "I didn't see any lights," said a witness who was near the accident, while another witness said "there was no sirens." A third witness recalled telling her son right before the crash "maybe the emergency is over" and that that was why the police car did not have its lights on.

The report was released after the officer was spared any criminal charges by a grand jury, so the attention now turns to any civil action that could be taken against the officer by the families of the deceased passengers.

Source: Mankato Free Press, "State Patrol: New Ulm squad car's lights, siren off during fatal crash," Feb. 1, 2012