ST. PETER — On May 30, Madeline Bach was driving south on North Third Street in St. Peter, just like she’d done a thousand times before on her way to work at the grocery store.
But this time, in an instant, that drive changed from routine to traumatic. As she passed through an intersection, an eastbound car on Skaro Street blew through a stop sign and T-boned Bach’s car, spinning her Impala 180 degrees.
But it wasn’t just any car that crashed into her that day — it was a St. Peter Police Department squad car.
“ It was a little startling looking over and then seeing the vehicle past the stop sign rather than before when I had first seen it,” Bach said. “ My glasses fell off my face and were upside down in my hand, which was just like, ‘What just happened?’”
The driver of the squad car was officer Julie Link, someone Bach had met after her boyfriend was in a car crash and she was present. Even though Bach trusted Link previously, she said she was still upset with how the situation played out.
No sirens were on, although Link said she was responding to a call. Cops are legally allowed to speed or run traffic lights as safely as possible with visible flashing lights and sirens when responding to an emergency call, according to Minnesota statute.
In the original report by the State Patrol, Link stated she had slowed down to look both ways before crossing the intersection. Bach’s vehicle, she told the patrol, was in a blind spot and she did not see it coming.
Link’s dashcam footage showed something a bit different.
As Link’s squad car approaches the intersection, it appears she didn’t slow down at all.
“ I was directly in front of her,” Bach said.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous that they’re trying to say it’s in a blind spot.”
Link, who started with the St. Peter Police Department in November 2019, received a petty misdemeanor for failing to stop at a stop sign, a citation punishable by up to $300 in fines, according to the State Patrol final report. She also was suspended for a day without pay in conjunction with St. Peter policy, said City Administrator Todd Prafke.
St. Peter Chief of Police Matt Grochow did not respond when contacted for comment.
Bach, now over two months removed from the crash, said the punishment feels fair to her. What she really wants to see going forward is more education on distracted driving at the St. Peter Police Department.
“I think they should really run their officers through the ringer making sure that stop sign intersections are completely memorized for town because it just seems like she forgot that there was a stop sign on that block,” Bach said. “ I feel it’s also about being distracted while they’re driving because they have to process all that stuff on the computer.”
Bach also mentioned that although the damage was minimal, it could have been a lot worse. She said that on her many drives down the road to work, she has seen kids running across the road, people walking their dogs and bicyclists.