A Columbus police cruiser was hit early Wednesday after a routine traffic stop spiraled into a pursuit and collision in Franklinton, leaving an officer hospitalized. The officer was reported in stable condition following the crash, which happened at the intersection of West Broad Street and Central Avenue at about 1:30 a.m.
According to WSYX, the incident began as an Ohio Highway Patrol traffic stop, but the car involved took off rather than pulling over. That vehicle later crashed into the Columbus police cruiser at the West Broad and Central intersection, the outlet reported.
Two people were detained following the collision, though it was not immediately clear what charges, if any, they could face, per the same report. No further details on the officer's condition, the circumstances of the chase, or the extent of damage to the cruiser were available as of Wednesday morning.
A Second Cruiser Crash in the Same Neighborhood
Wednesday's crash marks at least the second time in recent memory that a Columbus police cruiser has been involved in a serious collision in Franklinton, though the two incidents are unrelated. In an earlier case, an adult driver was killed and an officer was injured after a cruiser crash in the same west-side neighborhood, according to NBC4.
In that prior incident, officers were responding to a burglary in progress at 2:50 a.m. in Franklinton when a cruiser traveling east on West Broad Street toward Central Avenue with its sirens and lights activated collided with a Chevrolet heading north on Central Avenue, NBC4 reported. The Chevrolet's adult driver was pronounced dead at a hospital, while the officer driving the cruiser was recovering in a hospital, the station said.
Fleeing a Traffic Stop Carries Legal Risk in Ohio
Ohio law addresses exactly the kind of behavior described in Wednesday's incident. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2921.331, a person may not fail to comply with a police officer's traffic signal and may not willfully elude or flee after receiving a visible or audible signal to stop.
Columbus police policy also governs how officers are supposed to respond when a driver flees. The Columbus Division of Police's pursuit directive states that a marked vehicle with operable lights and sirens should be used in a pursuit, and that pursuit-rated marked cruisers shall take precedence, according to the department's Division Directive.
Cruiser collisions tied to fleeing drivers are not unheard of in Columbus. In January 2025, a Columbus Division of Police officer and a suspect were both injured after the suspect rammed a vehicle into the officer's cruiser, according to 10TV. Police have also searched for a driver who crashed a stolen car into a cruiser before leading officers on a chase across the city, per a separate report from the outlet that first detailed Wednesday's crash.
The identities of the officer and the two people detained early Wednesday have not been released, and it remains unclear what led the driver to flee the original traffic stop before the crash at West Broad Street and Central Avenue.
