Lansing, MI : Couch leads to crash; 2 officers, 2 citizens hurt on Wednesday, January 25th 2017

Two Detroit police officers and two citizens were treated for injuries Wednesday evening after falling furniture led to a collision on Interstate 96 on the city’s west side.

The officers were transporting a patient to Detroit Receiving Hospital in the eastbound lanes near Livernois at about 8 p.m. when they drove behind a truck carrying a couch, said Officer Jennifer Moreno, a spokeswoman for the department.

The patient, a 22-year-old man, was having "some type of mental episode" and police were taking him to the crisis center of the hospital, said Officer Dan Donakowski, a department spokesman. That's also why the officers were transporting the man rather than EMS.

When the couch fell off, “they slowed down and the car behind them didn’t,” she said. “They got rear-ended.”

All three in the squad car were taken to the hospital as a precaution for non-life-threatening injuries, Moreno said.

Another individual, in the other car involved in the crash, was also taken to the hospital, Donakowski said.

The crash briefly closed part of the highway, but all lanes were reopened by 9 p.m., the Michigan Department of Transportation reported on Twitter.

Staff Writer James David Dickson contributed

Source :
Couch leads to crash; 2 officers, 2 citizens hurt