Two cars collided at the intersection of Ostrom Avenue and University Place on Monday night, leaving a Syracuse police cruiser and a student’s vehicle damaged.

Greg Richmand, a senior finance major, said he was driving his black 2009 Audi northbound on Ostrom when it was hit by a Syracuse Police Department cruiser going the wrong way on University Place from Thornden Park. University Place becomes a one-way street inside the park just after the Ostrom intersection.

‘I was driving down Ostrom, and the cop came the wrong way out of Thornden Park and hit my car,’ said Richmand. The collision happened around 10:30 p.m., he said.

Officers from Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety and the SPD officers on the scene declined to comment on the accident. Several calls to SPD were not returned.

The Audi suffered damage on the passenger side, and the SPD cruiser had front-end damage and was leaking fluids.

Richmand said he is unsure how much damage was done to his car, but ‘it didn’t look good.’ Richmand, the only person inside the car, said he did not sustain any injuries.

‘I was a little shaken up, that’s all,’ he said.

Following the collision, the SPD car faced Thornden Park, and the Audi ended up in a snow bank on the wrong side of Ostrom Avenue behind DellPlain Hall. Debris and glass from the two-car collision covered part of the street.

A flatbed from MC’s Towing arrived on the scene at 11:47 p.m., and a second flatbed from the Syracuse Department of Public Works arrived at 11:53 p.m. The department loaded the SPD car onto the flatbed at 12:06 a.m. Shortly after, the flatbed from MC’s Towing loaded the Audi. The worker from MC’s Towing also swept up the debris from the collision.

DPS blocked off several intersections after the accident. One DPS car blocked the intersection of Ostrom Avenue and Clarendon Street; another DPS car blocked the intersection of University Place and Comstock Avenue next to Ernie Davis Hall; and a third DPS car blocked the intersection of Ostrom and Waverly avenues.

In virtually the same spot as Monday’s collision, a similar accident occurred Sept. 21, when two cars collided after a driver heading the wrong way on University Place from Thornden Park was hit by a vehicle traveling northbound on Ostrom Avenue, according to an article published in The Daily Orange on Sept. 22.

jdharr04@syr.edu

Published on January 31, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Jon: jdharr04@syr.edu