Officer T-boned, sent to hospital

A collision between a police cruiser and a Dodge Intrepid at Fairview Road and Baker Street sent a Costa Mesa police officer and the Dodge’s driver to the hospital Wednesday night.

The officer was inching his way through the intersection with his siren and lights when the woman slammed into the side of the officer’s vehicle, sending it about 30 feet West down Baker, according to witnesses and police.

The officer and the woman, who were not immediately identified, did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Sgt. Victor Bakkila said.

“It looks like [the officer] had a cut on his head,” Bakkila said. “Both he and the citizen are being taken off to the hospital for treatment, but they were alert and appeared OK.”

The officer and the woman were taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, Lt. Loren Wyrick said.

“Obviously we’re waiting to hear back on the extent of their injuries, but both of them were coherent and conscious,” Wyrick said.

The officer was rushing to the scene of another accident when he got in the collision at Fairview and Baker, Bakkila and Wyrick said.

Karen Almanza and Donna Jackson, who saw the accident, praised the vigilance of one man who helped the dazed officer apply gauze to his bleeding ?head.

“Everyone’s been very cooperative and helpful,” Almanza said. “The police got here very fast.”

“He just did what he should’ve been doing — he had his siren and lights on, and he wasn’t speeding,” Jackson said. “I think she just didn’t see it — it was one of those things.”

Bakkila, who said he was stationed in Iraq with the officer involved in the accident for approximately a year, could only shake his head at his co-worker’s luck.

“He toughed it through Iraq, but just couldn’t make it through the intersection,” he said, smiling, knowing that his friend would be OK.