When the Video Doesn't Match the Police Report: A Chicago Crash Caught on Camera

On July 9, our client was driving through the intersection of Madison Street and Kilpatrick Avenue on Chicago's West Side when a Chicago Police Department SUV collided with her Buick. The impact pushed her car into parked vehicles and sent her to the hospital.

She was injured in the crash. She was also the one who got blamed for it. Chicago police issued her three citations: failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, disobeying a stop sign, and tinted windows.

Driver Defense Team believes that account has it backward, and surveillance video appears to support that. The footage shows the squad car's emergency lights did not switch on until after the two vehicles had already collided. Our position is straightforward: if the officers proceeded through that intersection with no lights and no siren, they had no special right to be there, and the ordinary rules of the road put the burden on the vehicle that failed to yield.

Our client's case was serious enough, and the video troubling enough, that NBC 5 Chicago featured it this week. We sat down with their team to walk through the footage. You can watch the full segment above.

What the footage appears to show

That timing is the heart of the case. Attorney Derek Martin put it plainly:

The squad car had just stopped skidding when those lights flipped on. They were certainly not on when the squad car ran through that intersection and blew that stop sign.

That distinction is not a technicality. In Illinois, a police officer or other emergency responder is generally permitted to proceed through a stop sign or red light only when actively responding to an emergency with lights and siren engaged, and even then only with a duty to drive with due regard for everyone else's safety. If the lights and siren were not on, the ordinary rules of the road apply, and the vehicle that disregarded the stop sign is the one that failed to yield.

Our client says she never heard a siren and never saw the SUV before impact.

Why it matters, for the tickets and the injuries

Cases like this sit at the intersection of two very different legal questions:

• The traffic citations. Three tickets were issued, and our client is due in court on August 17 to contest them. A citation is an accusation, not a verdict. When independent video contradicts the narrative behind the ticket, that evidence can change everything.
• The injuries. Being wrongly blamed for a crash you didn't cause has consequences far beyond a ticket. It can shape who is held responsible for medical bills, lost income, and the physical toll of a serious collision. The injury side of this case is with our sister firm, DDT Injury, which handles personal injury claims for people hurt in crashes like this one.

Too often, the official account of a crash becomes the accepted version simply because no one challenges it. Independent evidence, such as surveillance cameras, dashcams, doorbell cameras, and witness video, is frequently the only thing standing between a driver and a story that was written without them.

What to do if this happens to you

If you're involved in a collision, with a police vehicle, an emergency vehicle, or anyone else, and you believe you were wrongly blamed:

1. Get medical attention and keep every record. Your health comes first, and the documentation matters later.
2. Don't assume the citation is the final word. Tickets can be contested, and they frequently are.
3. Move quickly to preserve video. Surveillance and traffic-camera footage is often overwritten within days. The sooner it is requested, the better.
4. Talk to a lawyer before you talk yourself into accepting fault. What you say early can follow the case.

Don't let someone else write your version of events

Our client did the one thing that can turn a case around. She questioned the official account instead of accepting it, and the video backed her up. Most people never get that chance, because the footage disappears or no one thinks to look for it.

If you've been ticketed after a crash and the official story doesn't match what you know happened, that's worth a conversation. Driver Defense Team offers a free, no-obligation case review — call us or request one online, and let's find out what the evidence actually shows. If you were injured in the crash, our sister firm DDT Injury handles those claims.

Story reported by NBC 5 Chicago: “Woman questions CPD crash account after video appears to contradict narrative.”