DPS officer, dispatcher injured when officer loses control of vehicle

An Arizona Department of Public Safety officer assigned to the Capitol Police detail was trapped inside his patrol car in Phoenix Friday. Firefighters worked to rescue the officer and his passenger on a ride-along.

"They avoided a head-on collision, but unfortunately the vehicle rolled," said Phoenix Police Sergeant Jon Howard.

Police say a dispatcher was on a ride-along with the officer when he had a medical condition, possibly a seizure. He slumped over and his foot pressed on the gas.

"The dispatcher saw up ahead a T-intersection with a concrete wall, she did not want to continue accelerating and slam into that wall," said Howard.

The dispatcher reached over and grabbed the steering wheel and intentionally crashed the car into several cars parked along Monroe.

Albert Aparicio was standing in a parking lot behind that concrete wall. The patrol SUV would have slammed into him, had the dispatcher not grabbed the wheel.

"I heard this loud crashing noise, it sounded like two big garbage trucks went head-on," said Albert Aparicio.

"I saw the DPS vehicle flipping over and going towards 15th Avenue," he said.

Both the officer and dispatcher were seriously injured, but the injuries are non life threatening.

"Both were responding, they answered all the questions, they both at up and they were taken by the fire department," said Aparicio.

The names of the officer and dispatcher were not released, the officer is 46-years-old, and the dispatcher is 25-years-old.

Phoenix Police are investigating the crash because of the location.