Cop cited for hitting baby


John Ruch

15 other police accidents this year

A local police officer was found at fault in the Aug. 7 accident where a police truck hit a 1-year-old baby in a stroller in the Centre Street/Seaverns Avenue crosswalk, according to Boston Police Department (BPD) spokesperson Elaine Driscoll.

The impact reportedly sent the baby somersaulting in its stroller, causing minor injuries, while the infant’s mother looked on. Officer Patrick Wood was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian and was ordered back to the police academy for driving classes, Driscoll said.

That incident was one of 16 accidents involving police vehicles in Jamaica Plain’s main E-13 police district this year, a Gazette review of E-13 police incident reports has found. They include four accidents since the stroller-hitting incident.

The incident reports do not describe the circumstances of the accidents. Driscoll said the Gazette would have to file a Freedom of Information Act request to find out whether officers were found at fault in any of those accidents. The Gazette filed the request last month.

Lt. Michael Kern, the acting commander of the E-13 Police Station, did not return a Gazette phone call for this article.

The Gazette has frequently observed local police vehicles committing minor but potentially dangerous traffic and parking violations in apparent non-emergency situations, including parking on sidewalks and in crosswalks.

In three days of casual observation in central JP last month, the Gazette observed three BPD vehicles committing violations that included turning without signaling and parking in no-parking zones. In one case, a police car was parked partly blocking the driveway for the Centre Street fire station while an officer patronized the Real Deal Deli next door.

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