Two girls, ages 4 and 11, were airlifted to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after the vehicle they were riding in struck a police cruiser Saturday afternoon in Pasadena.
The accident occurred around 4:15 p.m. in the area of eastbound Route 100 and southbound Route 10. A preliminary investigation indicates that a Howard County police cruiser, driven by Symchay Kon Bendu, a four-year veteran of the department, was attempting to make an illegal U-turn on Route 100 near Route 10 when it was T-boned by a 2005 Honda Civic, Anne Arundel County police said.
Bendu was on duty at the time the accident occurred. Police said that he was unfamiliar with the area and was attempting to return to Howard County.
Bendu drove to the area where Route 100 merges with Route 10 south and attempted to make a U-turn on westbound Route 100. The officer slowed down at the end of a grass median and made an illegal U-turn directly into the path of the Honda which was being driven by Jamie Marie Butler, 31, of Brooklyn Park.
The girls were taken by helicopter to the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Trauma Center in Baltimore, fire department spokesman Division Chief Keith Swindle said.
Butler and passenger Charlie Norfolk, 34, of Brooklyn Park, were also taken with non-life threatening injuries to Johns Hopkins in an effort to avoid splitting up a group that appeared to be a family, Swindle said.
Bendu was not injured, police spokesman Lt. Michael Brothers said.
Police closed Route 100, causing major traffic delays.
The accident happened around the same time that a single-vehicle crash in Severn sent four to hospitals.
Firefighters responded to the 700 block of Queenstown Road in Severn around 4:15 p.m., where they found the vehicle had driven into a tree. Two men, approximately 31 and 34 years old, were taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with injuries that were serious but not life-threatening.
Two others were taken to the Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie with minor injuries, Swindle said.
Additional information on either crash was not immediately available Saturday afternoon.
Copyright 2013 - The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
