(NECN: Kathryn Sotnik, Middleboro, Mass.) - A Middleboro, Mass. police cruiser and Jeep Cherokee SUV collided, head-on, at the 400 block of Wareham Street, also known as Rte. 28 in Middleboro.
Shortly after the crash, a man, bloodied and badly injured, was loaded onto an ambulance.
Peter Pomerleau was at his father-in-law's house across the street from the crash.
"I was sitting on the couch I heard him hit the siren and looked out and they hit," said Pomerleau. "It happened so fast."
Both the Middleboro police cruiser and maroon Jeep sustained serious front-end damage and shattered windshields. Pieces of the cars were scattered on the roadway.
Neighbor Kris Holmes ran out to help and found the driver of the Jeep, the victim later taken away on the stretcher, trapped behind the wheel.
The Middleboro Fire Department says the driver of the Jeep is a 40-year-old man and that the jaws of life were needed to free him.
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"They had to pry his legs out. One got broke and he was bleeding. I just told him to be calm," said Holmes.
Another neighbor, Leo Carney, tended to the female passenger, who was the most badly injured.
Carney tells NECN she didn't appear to be wearing a seatbelt and was ejected, landing under a back wheel.
Fire officials say she is a 30-year-old woman.
The police officer, Carney says, appeared to have a broken leg and had "a lot of people helping him."
The male officer was taken to Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Mass. There's no word on his condition.
The crash happened around 4:30 p.m. Monday. Massachusetts State Police assisted with the reconstruction and are deferring all calls on the matter to Middleboro police.
A Middleboro Police lieutenant at the scene would not comment.
Eyewitnesses say they don't know what happened for sure, however, Carney says the officer was responding to a call downtown and that the officer had his lights and sirens on while he was driving.
The two people in the Jeep were taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where they are in critical condition.
To complicate matters, fire officials say a medical helicopter had mechanical troubles and couldn't fly. A second medical helicopter was cancelled due to the prolonged response time, and a responding ambulance got a flat tire from debris in the roadway from the crash.
The matter is under investigation.
