Boston Mayor Michelle Wu defends use of lights and sirens in police escort crash

Two weeks after her police escort crossed on a red light and collided with another vehicle, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said it was “standard practice” for emergency lights and sirens to be activated when transporting dignitaries through traffic.

Wu said video footage provided to her office shows that the Boston police officer, Keyanna Smith, came to a complete stop at the intersection prior to going through the red light, and followed department protocols “as laid out for the use of sirens.”

While she feels elected officials should have to experience the same everyday inconveniences as residents, Wu said it’s “fairly standard practice” for the dignitary protection team “to activate lights and sirens to move through traffic smoothly when getting to a destination.”

“Everyone else is stuck in traffic and that is something that is unusual and I think should and is used sparingly, but the reality of being mayor and one of the unique parts of this job is I do have to get all around the city in all different locations on my calendar,” Wu said Tuesday on GBH’s Boston Public Radio.

“Today, I have eight different meetings, everywhere from way down low in Port Norfolk all the way up to Charlestown, Dorchester, Mission Hill and in City Hall, and sometimes when there is an important commitment to get to those lights and sirens go on.”

The mayor said the use of lights and sirens in non-emergency situations — such as what occurred June 6 when Smith went through a red light to try to get Wu to an event at the Copley Library on time and collided with a car driven by a woman with her young son in the backseat — is not done “frequently.”

“But it is part of an aspect of this job that I have to get places and we are reviewing when and how to make sure that that is always safe and appropriate as well,” Wu said.

The collision left the woman, identified in media reports as Yosmery Peña, and her 1-year-old baby injured, and with $8,000 in damage to her vehicle. She told a Boston news outlet that she was responsible for the $1,000 insurance deductible.

Wu told reporters that she was a little banged up from the crash, but according to the police report, had declined immediate medical attention. The police officer, Smith, was also injured, the report stated.

A spokesperson for the Boston Police Department said Tuesday that the crash is still under investigation, and directed the Herald to the BPD website for information on what its protocols are for use of emergency lights and sirens.

According to department rules, an officer “may drive such vehicle through an intersection of ways contrary to any traffic signs or signals regulating traffic at such intersection if he first brings such vehicle to a full stop and then proceeds with caution and due regard for the safety of persons and property.”

“There’s a set of protocols that govern when and govern how sirens and lights have to be deployed when they are deemed to be used around how you stop, how you approach, how you communicate and activate the different mechanisms,” Wu said. “And so that is under investigation.

“There was one video that was leaked immediately that shows that from one particular angle. There are other angles that have been obtained that show other parts of how that happened.”