Good Lord! When Will it Stop??

Officer killed in grinding car crash
Rescuers had to extricate victims from both autos after the accident at a Port Richmond intersection.

By Bonnie L. Cook

Inquirer Staff Writer

A Philadelphia police officer died last night following a dramatic two-vehicle crash - involving a suspected drunk driver - in the city's Port Richmond section.

Sgt. Timothy Simpson, a 20-year veteran, is the fourth member of the force to die on the job this year.

Simpson died at Temple University Hospital, where he had been rushed in critical condition following the 10:30 p.m. collision at Aramingo and Allegheny Avenues.

Police early this morning said the officer was responding to a robbery report when his vehicle collided with a car driven by a suspected drunk driver.

The collision was so violent that it thrust the cruiser into the wall of a nearby building and slammed the other car into a light stand.

The two vehicles were demolished, and it took furious efforts by rescuers to pull the officer from his squad car, and two civilians from the other vehicle.

Simpson died about a half-hour later. The status of the two civilians was not available.

Almost immediately after word of the collision surfaced, scores of officers, police brass and city officials - including Mayor Nutter - made their way to Temple to grieve, to comfort themselves and the officer's family, and to brief reporters.

The crash came a little more than two months after Officer Isabel Nazario was fatally injured in a crash with a stolen sports-utility vehicle in West Philadelphia. The SUV was driven by a 16-year-old boy who was later charged with third-degree murder.

That crash, at 39th and Wallace Streets on Sept. 5, produced a similar outpouring by police, officials and reporters, but on that occasion at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

This year has been one of the deadliest on record for the department.

It began with the shooting of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski on May 3. He was gunned down May 3 at Almond and Schiller Streets while confronting suspects who had just held up a bank.

That murder was followed by the Nazario's death, and the Sept. 23 point-blank shooting of Officer Patrick McDonald while going after a suspect near 17th and Dauphin Streets in North Philadelphia.