Chicago police investigate a multi-vehicle accident while Chicago Fire Department paramedics render aid to the victims near 80th Street and Indiana Avenue tonight. Eric Clark for the Chicago Tribune

Chicago police investigate a multi-vehicle accident while Chicago Fire Department paramedics render aid to the victims near 80th Street and Indiana Avenue tonight. (Eric Clark for the Chicago Tribune / October 20, 2011)









Eight people were injured, four seriously, in three-vehicle crash that injured an officer in his police car in the Chatham neighborhood this evening, officials said.


The crash at 83rd Street and Indiana Avenue left a Pontiac sport-utility vehicle on its roof and also involved a Ford Fusion and a Dodge Intrepid about 8:50 p.m., said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford, who was at the scene of the crash this evening. Video from the scene showed the Fusion was an unmarked police car.


A brief pursuit began after Gresham District police officers learned a vehicle may have had weapons and tried to pull it over near 80th Street and Indiana Avenue, News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said.


The vehicle, with three people inside, fled and hit an unmarked Chicago Police car -- the Dodge Intrepid -- traveling westbound on 83rd Street before hitting another vehicle that was traveling eastbound on 83rd Street.


Four occupants of the third vehicle were injured, and three occupants of the SUV police tried to stop were among the eight injured, Alfaro said, citing preliminary reports.


The unmarked police car wasn't involved in the pursuit, Alfaro said.


Two men were being taken by Fire Department ambulance to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious-to-critical condition and two women were being taken to Stroger Hospital in serious-to-critical condition, Langford said.


In addition, two women and a man were being taken to St. Bernard Hospital in fair-to-serious condition. The man was somehow injured in the accident, but was being transported from 83rd Street and Wabash Avenue, Langford said.


Another man--believed to be the officer injured in his police vehicle--was being taken to Advocate Trinity Hospital in fair-to-serious condition. The officer was expected to fully recover.