FORD COUNTY — The Dodge City police department has released a statement on Saturday's fatal crash involving a police officer responding to a burglary call that claimed the life of 26-year-old Vanessa Guzman and injured the officer.
"Our heartfelt and deepest condolences go out to Ms. Guzman’s family, friends, and loved ones who have been impacted by this tragedy."
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2016 Hyundai Accent driven by Vanessa Guzman, 26, Dodge City was traveling north on Matt Down Lane. The vehicle entered into the path of a 2018 Ford Explorer driven by Dodge City police officer Shane Harris, 31, who was westbound on Wyatt Earp Boulevard responding to report of a break-in on 28th Avenue, according to Dodge City Police.
The Ford struck the Hyundai in the passenger side.
The impact pushed the Hyundai over a metal guardrail where it overturned and Guzman was ejected. The Ford came to rest on the west bound shoulder next to the guardrail.
Guzman was not wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the KHP. EMS transported Harris to Western Plains Medical Center.
According to the Dodge City Police Department, "The Kansas Highway Patrol is thoroughly investigating this accident with our full cooperation. The DCPD has not used dash cameras since we converted to body-worn cameras in 2016. However, we have recovered the officer’s body-worn camera video prior to the accident and have given it to KHP. The DCPD is conducting a parallel internal investigation into the accident pursuant to departmental policy.
Both investigations will take time to resolve, and we ask the community to have patience and support all of those impacted by this terrible accident. We will continue to be as transparent as possible and release information that doesn’t directly affect the investigation.
We have also met with Guzman family members to allow them to review body-worn camera footage of the accident and ask questions.
The DCPD has a very restrictive policy regarding when officers are authorized to respond as an emergency vehicle with lights and sirens due to the dangers created by driving contrary to traffic laws. The call the officer was responding to is covered under that policy, but each call has many moving parts that can impact the decision to drive with lights and siren. The information being reported and relayed to the officers will be what they depend on to make that assessment. The officers responding to this call had received information while in route that led them to downgrade their response from lights and sirens. At the time of the crash, the officer was still responding to the call but was not responding as an emergency vehicle under lights and sirens."