Cleveland, OH : Police detective in Thursday Tremont crash has surgery,August 10th 2015

An undercover Cleveland police detective was involved in a crash on W 14th Street and Fairfield Avenue in the Tremont neighborhood Thursday afternoon.
Later, Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Steve Loomis said Second District vice detective and 17-year department veteran Kevin Fairchild underwent a six-hour surgery Thursday night at MetroHealth Medical Center for a collapsed lung, broken ribs, and a broken leg.
He will need several weeks and months of rehabilitation and additional surgeries, according to Loomis.
Loomis called the detective "a very strong guy."
EMS responded to the crash.
Cleveland Police Lt. Ali Pillow tells WKYC that police and vice detectives had some suspects under surveillance when one of the suspects got into a gold car and drove off. Police followed in an unmarked silver van and tried to stop the gold car.
The suspect went northbound on W. 14th Street and encountered some construction so he turned around and went southbound.
That's when the gold car slammed into the undercover van. The driver of the gold car, who has not been identified, was dead at the scene.
Police tell WKYC that a police detective in the van -- Fairchild -- was pinned in the wreckage. He was extricated and taken to MetroHealth Medical Center where he is listed in serious condition with non-life-threatening injuries.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner was called to W. 14th Street and will be taking the car -- with the driver's body still inside -- back to the ME's office for an autopsy.


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Police detective in Thursday Tremont crash has surgery