Remembering The Cop Who Couldn’t Stop Crashing
Read the full story on The Auto Wire
Police officers are people and so like the rest of us sometimes they screw up. Sometimes this is just plain human error, sometimes it’s gross negligence, and sadly it’s sometimes malicious in nature. But sometimes it’s kind of funny, like this Rio Racho, New Mexico officer who just couldn’t stop crashing.
Watch police rescue a girl from a crashed and burning stolen car.
As detailed out in a KRQE report back in November 2018, Rio Rancho Police Officer Brittany Mahnesmith just couldn’t stop crashing with or crashing into her patrol car. At that time, she had five crashes, which seems like a lot.
They range from Mahnesmith backing her cruiser into another police car in the department’s parking lot, hitting her cruiser with her own private vehicle at her house, to plowing into the back of a citizen’s car at speed because she reportedly was distracted by her computer.
Only one crash, where someone ran a red light and hit her, wasn’t listed as Mahnesmith’s fault. In total, she racked up $18,000 in vehicle damages, all floated by taxpayers.
One would think an officer who crashes that much wouldn’t even get through the academy, or if they did, they would face serious discipline from the department. Instead, in January 2019 KRQE reported Mahnesmith was appointed to the department’s Crash Review Board. Talk about an ironic twist. Or the fox watching the hen house.
It’s moves like this which just doesn’t help police departments build relationships of confidence and trust with the community.
We tried looking for info on more crashes after the 2018 report, but perhaps all the media attention forced her to learn how to drive better. Or something else happened. We don’t know.
We were able to find out Mahnesmith was promoted to detective thanks to a story from local news station KOAT about police from Rio Rancho participating in the Special Olympics Winter Games back in July 2021. So after all the crashing, she was able to climb to ranks to a position many cops who don’t get distracted by their computer fail to achieve.
How inspiring.
Images via KRQE/YouTube
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