United States

Dallas Highway Shut Down After Officer Crashes Into Stalled Car

Dallas police said an officer crashed his patrol car into a stalled vehicle that had a baby inside Friday morning, shutting down Highway 175 at Interstate 45 for several hours.

Jerry Agnew, his girlfriend and a 4-month-old baby were in the car when it broke down on southbound Central Expressway, also known as S.M. Wright Freeway, near Pennsylvania Avenue at about 3:23 a.m.[[313186461,L]]

Agnew told NBC 5 they were pushing the car out of the left lane when the Dallas Police Department cruiser crashed into them.

A third vehicle then crashed into the police cruiser, authorities said.

"If I hadn't pulled my partner out of the way he wouldn't even be here," Agnew said. "He didn't have light or sirens. He was just coming down the street. He was coming pretty fast, but he was coming, you know."

Senior Cpl. Demarcus Black said the officer suffered minor injuries and the accident investigation is not complete. The officer's name was not released.

None of the other people involved reported injuries.

Neighbors say the freeway in that area is poorly lit, and video of the scene shows it was very dark at the time.

"For him not to see somebody in front of him, that ought to tell you, the highway itself is very dark," said businessman Ricky Svay.

Svay's family runs Texas Liquor and Groceries on Highway 175 near the accident scene. Svay said he often drives home on the road and finds many street lights are not working.

"In my humble opinion I believe it's very dangerous at night time because it's very dark," Svay said. "And I don't know who is responsible for it, but this area could use some lights."

Lights in the area are owned by the Texas Department of Transportation or the City of Dallas, but maintained under contract by electric provider Oncor.

Oncor representative Emily Sanderson said by e-mail there are 400,000 street lights in the Oncor coverage area, and 85,000 of those are in Dallas.

Sanderson responded to lighting concerns at the wreck location by e-mail.

"We do not currently have a reported outage at this location, and we did not have a reported outage at the time of the incident," Sanderson said.

However, Sanderson said the company will now review the area after contact from NBC 5.

She encouraged customers to report any outage at www.oncorstreetlight.com or by phone at 1-888-313-4747.

NBC 5's Todd L. Davis and Josh Ault contributed to this report.

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