An Erie police officer and another motorist were taken to UPMC Hamot after their vehicles collided at a downtown intersection Sept. 12.

The officer was taken to the hospital with a suspected head injury and the other motorist appears to have suffered major injury in the collision, which was reported Sept 12 at 7:07 a.m. at the intersection of West 11th and Sassafras streets, according to Erie Police Chief Dan Spizarny.

Authorities have not identified the two drivers.

According to Spizarny, the officer, a patrol supervisor, was responding to a call and was traveling south on Sassafras Street when it appears the officer went through a red light and struck a vehicle traveling west on West 11th Street. The struck vehicle, a Toyota Prius, went up on the sidewalk and came to rest next to a building on the southwest corner of the intersection, according to Spizarny and information from the scene.

The police SUV, for a supervisor, sustained heavy front-end damage, and came to rest facing north on Sassafras street at the southwestern corner with West 11th Street, across the street from McDonald's. Sassafras runs one way south.

Spizarny said it is believed the patrol vehicle had its emergency lights activated at the time, but investigators will confirm that through a review of surveillance video as part of the investigation.

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Erie Bureau of Police accident investigators are investigating the accident with assistance from the Pennsylvania State Police, Spizarny said. 

A motorist whose vehicle was struck by an Erie police sport utility vehicle at a westside intersection on Sept. 12 has died of his injuries, according to Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook.

Cook on Sept. 26 identified him as Matthew Zaborowski, 41, of Erie, and said the cause of death was blunt-force trauma.

Zaborowski died Sept. 25 at 11:59 a.m. at UPMC Hamot of injuries he suffered in the traffic accident at West 11th and Sassafras streets, Cook said.

Zaborowski had been hospitalized since the accident, which was reported shortly before 7:10 a.m. Sept. 12. The city police officer who was driving the patrol SUV, whose name has not been released, suffered minor injuries in the crash. An unhoused person who was a bystander at the accident scene, whom authorities have not identified, suffered a broken leg, police reported.

The Erie police officer involved in the crash remains on administrative duty, Police Chief Dan Spizarny said Sept. 25. The accident remains under investigation, according to Sgt. Thomas Dunmire, an accident investigator with the city police bureau.

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Dunmire previously said his probe showed the driver of the SUV failed "to clear the intersection properly" to make sure no traffic was on West 11th Street.

The Pennsylvania State Police are assisting Erie police in the accident investigation. The Erie County District Attorney's Office will review the results of the investigation once completed to determine whether charges are warranted in the crash.

What happened in the crash?

Erie police reported after the crash that a city police supervisor was driving the SUV in response to a call and was heading south on Sassafras Street. The SUV had the red light as it entered the intersection of West 11th Street, and Dunmire reported previously that the SUV had its emergency lights on but its siren was not activated.

As the SUV went through the intersection at 43 mph, according to Dunmire, it struck a Toyota Prius that was traveling west on West 11th Street. The Prius then struck the unhoused person, Dunmire said.

Dunmire said Sept. 25 that he did not have an updated condition on the unhoused person, who suffered a broken right leg.