LEWISTON, N.Y. (WKBW) — Lewiston Police are investigating after an officer was involved in a crash on Military Road early Wednesday morning.
A preliminary investigation revealed that a Lewiston Police patrol vehicle was traveling northbound on Military Road when it struck the back of a tractor-trailer near the I-190 North exit ramp, causing the patrol vehicle to ignite.
According to officials, officer Joshua Belin was unresponsive and trapped inside the patrol vehicle. Officer Cody Bruyere and New York State Trooper Adam Moen arrived on the scene. The Lewiston Chief of Police Frank Previte said the two removed Officer Belin from the fully involved vehicle.
"It takes a lot to run towards something like that — and that's what I would like to say these guys and girls do that every day and they're prepared to do that every day they don't think of themselves first. There's a lot of danger running up to a burning vehicle," Previte said. "They're used to putting others before themselves it's a little bit more when you know it's one of our own."
Chief Previte said the life-saving efforts started even before the trooper and officer arrived on scene. Right before the impact, the truck driver, Paul Fisher an employee of Vargo Trucking, got out of his tractor-trailer and saw the SUV engulfed in flames.
"He probably helped save his life as well because he was unconscious in the vehicle and the truck driver got out with his fire extinguishing materials and was able to knock down the fire a little bit," Previte said. "Had he not done that it would've been out of control probably by the time that they got there."
Previte told 7 News that Office Belin was taken to ECMC with a broken ankle and head injury and was released Wednesday. But this is not the officer's first trip to the hospital while on duty.
"We had a structure fire and somebody actually unfortunately perished inside of the building, inside of the structure, but the officer that was involved here actually attempted to rescue and was injured. Had smoke inhalation and some burns and had to be hospitalized for that," Previte explained.
Previte said Officer Belin, who has been with the department for two years, will soon be receiving an award for his heroic efforts but first, he needs to recover from Wednesday's crash.
"He's a very good officer," Previte said. "With the department our size the good thing is that we do get to know everybody personally and it is more like a family than it is anything else so something like this affects everybody."
This is an ongoing investigation by Lewiston Police and the Niagara County Accident Investigation Unit.
