Dashcam video shows an ATV driver colliding with a police cruiser

Connecticut police released dashboard camera video Sunday showing an ATV driver crashing into a patrol car while riding illegally in a park.

New Haven officers assigned to a dirt bike/ATV unit to handle ongoing complaints about riders riding illegally and recklessly in the city responded to the East Rock Park area around 3:40 p.m. Sunday on reports of a group gathered there to the New Haven Police Department.

To access the park, officers used Farnam Drive, which has been closed to all vehicle traffic since 2020. While officers were driving up the road, they saw a large number of pedestrians, including families with children, in the area and noticed an all-terrain vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed down the road toward the pedestrians, police said.

Dashboard camera video released Wednesday shows officers slowing and tilting their patrol car to protect the families and pedestrians they had just passed, while also making room for the oncoming SUV to pass the patrol car can, according to the police.

As the patrol car slowed, the video shows the driver losing control of his ATV and crashing into the passenger side of the patrol car.

According to police, officers immediately called for medical help. The ATV driver was transported by ambulance to an area hospital with serious injuries.

The NHPD accident reconstruction team was on scene to investigate the collision, police said.

“This is an unfortunate and stark reminder of the extreme dangers of illegal ATV and dirt bike riding on city streets, both for pedestrians and the drivers of the vehicles themselves.” “Our law enforcement officers led on behalf of this family who found themselves in danger “performed a potentially life-saving maneuver,” said New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson.

“While we are glad the family was spared from harm, what happened to the driver is tragic. We hope for his full and speedy recovery and urge the public not to engage in such activities.