NEW JERSEY OFFICER HIT BY TROOPER'S VAN CAN PURSUE SUIT

A Camden police detective, hit by an unmarked N.J. State Police vehicle during a drug bust, can pursue a lawsuit for negligence, an appeals court ruled Friday. The officer, Richard Dayton, contends a trooper violated rules for police chases when the accident occurred. Dayton was standing behind an unmarked minivan when it backed into him as the driver, Trooper Edward Simpson, began to chase a drug suspect, court papers say.

The decision does not give the time and place of the incident. A Superior Court judge in April 2007 dismissed the suit, saying the defendants -- including the state and the state police -- had legal immunity. In Friday's decision, the appellate judges noted state law at the time of the accident said an unmarked police car could not take part in a chase "unless it is equipped with an emergency light and an audible device." The lights and siren should be activated as soon as the chase begins, the judges added.

The leased 2002 minivan that struck Dayton had an "emergency teardrop light" on its dashboard, but no audible device, the decision noted. The judges also said that, in a 2004 affidavit, Simpson acknowledged the minivan had no siren. The trooper said he had to make "split-second decisions" and that the thought of a chase-policy violation "never entered (his) mind." Friday's decision said the lower-court judge failed to address Simpson's state of mind, needed to determine the possibility of willful misconduct.