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Batavia police discipline officer over crash that totaled 2 vehicles


Batavia Police Officer Thomas Doggett has been suspended for two days without pay for his role in a crash that damaged two Batavia police vehicles.

On April 12, Doggett was driving a 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe on westbound Houston Street, responding to an emergency on North Lincoln Street. He did not come to a complete stop at the two-way stop at Houston and Lincoln, and hit a squad car that was heading north on Lincoln.

The collision sent the squad car into a tree on the west side of Lincoln, according to a traffic crash report.

Both vehicles had their emergency lights and sirens activated.

Doggett has worked for Batavia for 15 years.

The squad car, bought in 2011, and the Tahoe were totaled.

The department will replace the Tahoe with a 1998 Chevrolet Tahoe that the Batavia Fire Department was preparing to sell as a surplus vehicle. The equipment from the totaled sport utility vehicle will be transferred to the 1998 Tahoe.

“While it is not the most desirable outcome, we feel in applying our fleet replacement criteria, we can still get several years of patrol service life out of this vehicle, and are thankful that the fire department had a vehicle available,” Deputy Police Chief Dan Eul said Tuesday.

The department will buy replacement squad cars for the one totaled in this crash, and another damaged in an earlier crash. It hasn't decided what make and model vehicle to get, since Ford has stopped making the Crown Victorias the department has been using.

The marked fleet is down to nine patrol vehicles; consequently, they are being driven more and longer, accelerating the mileage and wear and tear, Eul said.