# Las Vegas Undercover Officer Critical after Crash



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*DAVID KIHARA*

_Las Vegas Review-Journal (Nevada)_









A nine-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department remained unconscious and in critical condition at University Medical Center on Friday after another driver lost control of a vehicle and collided with the officer's car on Decatur Boulevard near Tropicana Avenue. 
The officer, Dustin Ciecalone, 28, was on duty at the time of the collision and was working in a police car designed to look like a taxi cab, police said.
The 36-year-old driver of the other car, who was not identified, was ejected from the 2005 Pontiac GTO he was driving when it smashed into the undercover police cruiser.
He died at the scene of the accident, and Ciecalone was taken to UMC.
Police said the driver who died was traveling as fast as 90 miles an hour in a northbound lane of Decatur Boulevard and had just crossed Reno Avenue when he began to lose control of his car.
The Pontiac began to spin and when the driver tried to regain control of the car, he spun sideways and crashed into the front of Ciecalone's 1998 Ford Crown Victoria, police said.
TV news footage of the incident showed two mangled vehicles. The undercover police cruiser's front and roof was smashed, while the Pontiac was cut in two.
Police initially believed that the driver of the Pontiac was street racing with another vehicle but later determined that the car probably was just speeding down the street.
"There is not strong evidence that there was a second vehicle but the investigation is ongoing," said officer Bill Cassell, Las Vegas police spokesman.
"The unfortunate thing is that people drive that fast on city streets without anticipating the potential tragic outcome," he said.
It was the second accident this week involving a Las Vegas police officer.
On Sunday, an officer received moderate injuries when he was struck by a car during a traffic stop on Flamingo Road near Jones Boulevard.

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