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Valley police car, SUV collide

Christopher A. Mangum, of Spokane, crawls out of the 2001 Kia Sportage that flipped in a collision with a Spokane Valley police car Monday on Mission Avenue. (Joe Barrentine / The Spokesman-Review)
From Staff Reports The Spokesman-Review
Christopher A. Mangum, of Spokane, crawls out of the 2001 Kia Sportage that flipped in a collision with a Spokane Valley police car Monday on Mission Avenue. (Joe Barrentine / The Spokesman-Review)

An unmarked Spokane Valley police car collided with a 2001 Kia Sportage, tipping the vehicle onto its side and clogging traffic for nearly three hours.

About 1 p.m. Monday, Christopher A. Mangum, 25, of Spokane, tried to turn left onto Mission Avenue from a parking lot facing Pines Road, pulling in front of the police car, Valley police spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan said in a news release Monday.

“The next thing I know, there’s an impact and the car flipped,” said passenger W. Peden.

Officer Joe Bonin told investigators he was headed east on Mission in the inside lane, said Sgt. Brett Gores. Cars in the lane next to the curb were stopped, allowing the Kia to cross part of the street before being broadsided, Gores said.

Neither driver suffered serious injuries, Reagan said, but Bonin was treated for back pain.

The impact didn’t set off the airbags in the patrol car, Gores said, which usually deploy in a collision if the car is traveling more than 20 mph. He attributed the SUV’s tipping over to the angle of impact, the vehicle being top heavy and forces already pulling it to one side as it turned.