Report: NLR police officer runs stoplight, hits motorcylist

A motorcyclist was knocked unconscious after a North Little Rock police officer ran a stoplight and struck his vehicle, according to a preliminary crash report released Monday.

The accident occurred about 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of McCain and North Hills boulevards, according to the report.

Sherwood residents Wade Arnold, 61, and his wife Christine, 58, were northbound on North Hills Boulevard on a 2007 red Kawasaki Vulcan when a police officer — later identified as Phillip Evans, 23 — ran a stoplight and struck the motorcycle on its left side.

Evans, who was on-duty at the time, said in the report, "It's my fault; I ran the red light." Witnesses confirmed that the traffic light was green for Arnold and red for Evans.

The police department's spokesman Sgt. Brian Dedrick told Arkansas Online that Evans has been employed with the the department for about a year and two months. No administrative action has been taken against Evans, because police are still conducting interviews, Dedrick said. A disciplinary hearing will be scheduled after interviews are finished.

Dashboard footage of the accident was not taken, Dedrick said, because the camera activates when the officer turns his blue signal lights on.

Wade Arnold was unable to provide a statement about the accident because he was knocked unconscious, the report states. He was taken by Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services to the UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock to be treated for a possible concussion, and Christine Arnold was taken to the Baptist Health Medical Center in North Little Rock to be treated for an injured leg, Dedrick said in a statement Sunday. Neither suffered injuries that were considered life-threatening.

Evans was uninjured in the collision.