HPD officer struck during seat belt check; driver injured after 3-vehicle collision

A man Houston police tried to stop for a seat belt violation is in critical condition after he allegedly hit an  officer with his car and then collided with two other vehicles, authorities said.

The man was said to be in surgery and unidentified mid-day Sunday. He is expected to face charges including felony aggravated assault on a public servant. The officer’s name was not released

Houston Police officers were conducting seat belt checks around 9:30 a.m. Sunday at the intersection of the U.S. 59 feeder road and Bellaire Boulevard, Cmdr. Kevin Deese said.

“Being it Memorial Day weekend … we’re always concerned with traffic fatalities,” Deese said.

An officer saw the man without his seat belt on and stepped into a lane of traffic to give him the signal to stop, which he did, Deese said. Police say that he paused, then accelerated and hit the officer.

The officer got into his vehicle and pursued the man, who drove north on the feeder road and passed through the intersection at Hillcroft without stopping, Deese said.

He clipped one vehicle at the rear, Deese said, then was t-boned on the driver’s side by a pickup truck and spun into a traffic light pole.

The driver could face up to life in prison for the charge of assault on a public servant, said Sean Teare, chief of the vehicular crimes division for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

Teare said they also accepted charges for evading in a motor vehicle and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

“As I’ve said numerous times, cars can be and are deadly weapons,” Teare said. “And in this case it was used as a deadly weapon.”

It was an example of the repercussions that follow when people didn’t wear seat belts, Teare said.

“Wear your seat belts,” he said. “Don’t drink and drive. Be safe. Those are the messages for this weekend. Because this is one of the great weekends in our country every year, but its also one of the deadliest