Las Vegas officers, driver hurt in morning collision

Two Las Vegas officers and a 54-year-old woman were injured while the officers were responding to a robbery in the southwest valley today, the fourth department-involved accident this month.

Police said the two officers, ages 26 and 39, were in a patrol car heading east on Flamingo Road over the Las Vegas Beltway. At 11:29 a.m. they struck a 2008 Lexus IS250 that was making a left from the northbound off-ramp to go west on Flamingo.

The left front of the patrol car hit the left side of the Lexus, police said. The driver of the Lexus, Denise Schnitzer of Las Vegas, was taken to University Medical Center with minor injuries. The two officers, whose names were not released, were also taken to UMC with minor injuries.

Police did not say whether the car had its lights and siren on. And there was no indication of which driver might have been at fault. The officers were responding to a robbery at a Bank of Nevada at 8275 W. Flamingo, near Durango Drive.

The department has seen three other crashes this month, including the May 7 accident that killed 28-year-old officer James Manor.

Investigators found that Manor was traveling 109 miles per hour, without his lights and siren and without wearing a seat belt, in the moments before he slammed into a pickup truck that pulled in front of him on Flamingo near Rainbow Boulevard.

On May 23, a police officer and a civilian suffered minor injuries in a traffic collision at the intersection of Jones Boulevard and Ann Road.

Police said the officer was traveling east on Ann Road when he ran a red light and struck a 2004 Suzuki Forenza traveling north on Jones. Nobody was hospitalized in the incident.

On Monday, an officer and another person were injured after an officer possibly ran a red light in the intersection of Rainbow Boulevard and Twain Avenue. An officer and a citizen suffered minor injuries.

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.