GENEVA – A Kane County Sheriff's deputy suffered a shoulder injury in a crash at 4:40 p.m. Wednesday in Geneva, officials said.
Patrol Deputy Brian Demeter was one of two deputies on their way to a investigate possible overdose in St. Charles Township when another car hit Demeter's squad car on the driver's side when it sped through the intersection at the intersection of North Bennett and East State streets in Geneva, Sheriff Pat Perez said.
Demeter is listed in good condition at Delnor Hospital in Geneva.
A spokesman for Geneva Police said the deputy's car was northbound on Bennett Street while the other car, a Nissan Sentra, was traveling east on East State Street.
The Nissan, driven by Jacobo Rojas, 42, of West Chicago, went through a red light and hit the squad car in the driver's side, the spokesman said. Police ticketed Rojas for disobeying a traffic signal.
Traffic was slowed for a while, but not shut down after the crash, the spokesman said.
Perez said the deputy activated the Opticom equipment at the intersection. The technology provides a green light for emergency vehicles and flashes a white light to notify drivers that emergency vehicles were coming through the intersection, he said.
"The person who hit him, maybe had an issue with the brakes," Perez said. "There is enough danger driving as it is, but when we are doing an emergency response at intersections with flashing white lights – that means police or fire are entering the intersection and we need their [other drivers'] cooperation. We need them to exercise caution when they see the flashing lights."
Perez said Demeter, a patrol veteran of at least a dozen years, was in the squad car by himself.
The driver of the other car and passenger were not transported to a hospital, fire officials said.
