From the official Seattle Police Department Blotter report:
On August 18th at approximately 1:52 p.m. an officer in a fully-marked police car was responding to an emergency call with lights and siren activated. Just north of SW Brandon Street on California Avenue SW the officer collided with a beige Ford sedan and subsequently struck a tree near the side of the road. The driver and only occupant of the beige Ford sedan, a male in his 70′s, was evaluated at the scene but was not injured and did not require transportation. The officer, a male in his 20′s, was transported to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

Traffic Collision Investigation Squad detectives are responding to the scene. The circumstances surrounding the collision are currently under active investigation.

Thanks to reader and Videographer Edgar Riebe of Captive Eye Media for sharing his video of the scene with us.

Edgar@CaptiveEyeMedia.com
edgarrriebe@comcast.net

From a Newstips report sent to us by reader Gabriel Shalitmontagne:
" I took these pictures around 3:35 PM and the crash had been there for at least 15 minutes before that.
The (police) car was crashed in front of the Papa Johns pizza building on California and Brandon.

From what I could figure out, the police officer was responding to a call and went speeding north on California towards the Alaska Junction.

A car pulled out in front of him and he swerved so as not to hit the car and went into the tree.

There was also a non-police car crashed into the back of the police car. I'm not sure what the story about that is, but the driver of that car was there and was okay, the car itself wasn't too badly damaged.

The police officer is being checked out by medics and it is said that he is okay other than some bumps and bruises."

West Seattleite Dorie Nussbaum contacted the Herald via Facebook and offered her account of the incident. She was having lunch at the Thai Restaurant on California Avenue:

"The owner was talking to me and he saw it happen (the Thai place) he was looking out the window.
I was sitting with the wall in front of me but I stood up fast. The owner (ran outside) and I stayed by the cash register. I watched out the window for about 30 minutes then watched from Papa Johns and was near your photographer, I kept to myself.

The guy in the beige car was in the middle lane did not see the officer and pulled in front of him and he tried to avoid him and slammed into the tree."
Nussbaum said that the driver of the beige vehicle had a handicapped notice hanging in his car.