CARY -- Local police officers are raising money to help a Cary officer who was injured last week in a motorcycle crash.
The Cary chapter of the N.C. Police Benevolent Association set up a text-message donation system, a website and a Wachovia bank fund to support Chad Penland and his family as the officer recovers from serious injuries sustained during the Friday crash.
“We’re a close-knit family,” said Randy Byrd, president of the Cary PBA chapter. “When one of our own is hurt, injured or killed, we always rally.”
A pickup truck struck Penland, a senior Cary traffic-safety officer, as he drove his police motorcycle on patrol about 5 p.m. Penland, 32, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, including broken bones, Cary spokeswoman Deanna Boone said.
The eight-year Cary police veteran was still hospitalized Monday.
The town’s insurance policy will cover Penland’s medical bills. But the PBA wants to cover travel expenses for out-of-town family and friends, and other injury-related costs.
Some family members came from as far as the Greenville, S.C., area to visit Penland, who was a longtime resident of Burnsville, Byrd said.
“There’s motel expenses, there’s food expenses,” Byrd said. The PBA has not set a financial goal for its fundraiser. The family’s needs will become more obvious as doctors work with Penland, Byrd said.
Tapes released
Penland was on patrol when he witnessed a traffic violation and sped off in pursuit, lights and sirens activated, through the intersection of Morrisville-Carpenter Road and N.C. 55, according to state Highway Patrol reports.
A 72-year-old Cary man, Benjamin Rainey, drove a Dodge pickup truck across Penland’s path, according to Highway Patrol reports. In a 911 call released Monday, the voice of a witness was strained by desperate urgency.
“Please hurry,” a woman told dispatcher breathlessly. “... He’s a police officer.”
The dispatcher asked the woman to take a deep breath. “He’s a Cary police officer on a motorcycle who’s been hit by a man in a truck,” the witness explained as she calmed.
The tape cut off an instant later as the dispatcher spoke.
The Highway Patrol issued a citation to Rainey for failure to yield the right of way just before the collision, which happened at the intersection of N.C. 55 and Morrisville-Carpenter Road.
Staff writers Michael Biesecker and Paul A. Specht contributed to this report.
