Delayed Police Response Hampers Crash Investigation
by Alex Lloyd Gross
June 8,2023
Philadelphia Police do respond to auto accidents. However, sometimes they get delayed due to untimely dispatch or other calls.
One of those factors happened last night about 11:30 PM. An illegal dirt bike slammed into the rear of a SEPTA bus on Christopher Columbus Boulevard. at Washington Avenue. 911 was called, which resulted in police, fire and EMS to respond.
After the ENS takes control of the patient, the fire department generally leaves. With no police there to protect the scene an unknown person(s) arrived and took possession of the dirt bike and removed it from the scene.
Upon police arrival, the found only the SEPTA bus. SEPTA employees and fire crews are not police and cannot stop anyone taking a vehicle from a crash scene. The liability is too great.
Police did their best to investigate the scene and reported that none of the passengers on the bus required any medical assistance.
Some buses have cameras and if that is the case it will show who took the bike. It could have been family members, or friends who were trying to be helpful, by taking the bike before it got confiscated by police. It would have also been people unrelated to anyone in the crash who took the bike for unknown purposes.