Danielle Staub regularly takes the same left turn off southbound Route 51 when leaving her friend’s house in Pittsburgh’s Overbrook neighborhood.
Staub’s usually uneventful route turned traumatic early Monday when a marked Mt. Oliver police car smashed into her SUV from behind as her 8-year-old daughter sat in the back.
At the time, Staub was waiting at a light to turn onto Edgebrook Avenue so she could loop back onto northbound Route 51 to head home to Ross.
The collision totalled Staub’s 2025 Mitsubishi SUV, knocking it through the intersection and into a snowbank on the other side of the four-lane highway. The jolt crushed the back of the new vehicle and appeared to crack its frame, Staub said.
While Staub and her daughter were not injured, she grew angry about the driver’s response. Officer Daniel Pritchett said he didn’t see the SUV’s turn signal then walked away, Staub said.
“He didn’t even engage,” Staub, 35, told TribLive Thursday, “not like a police officer would, not even like a human being would do.”
Pritchett declined comment.
Mt. Oliver Mayor JoAnna Taylor and police Chief Matt Juzwick said Pritchett told them he didn’t see Staub’s turn signal or brake lights.
Both said Pritchett was cooperating and they have no reason to believe the crash was anything but an accident.
“I hate to say accidents are accidents but that’s why they call them that,” the chief said. “Fortunately, no one was hurt.”
Staub wasn’t ready to forgive and forget.
“He had no lights on. He wasn’t in the pursuit of me or anybody else — he had to be going pretty fast to do that kind of damage,” Staub said. “It’s an open-and-shut case. He rear-ended me. No matter how you look at it, he was in the wrong.”
Juzwick said he reviewed the officer’s body-worn camera footage and saw no evidence Pritchett was distracted or using a phone before the collision.
Pritchett did not appear intoxicated but hospital workers drew blood, which is protocol, both the chief and mayor said.
The officer had minor injuries to his hand and head.
Juzwick declined to discuss whether Pritchett, who was hired in 2023, could face discipline.
Teamsters Local 205, the union that represents the eight-member department’s rank and file, “heard nothing” about the incident, according to Carl Bailey, the union’s secretary and treasurer.
The mayor also declined to discuss potential discipline, noting it was a personnel matter. But she said the borough is treating the incident — and how it happened — seriously.
“We hold our officers to very high standards … and any time there’s something that comes up like this, we’re going to talk about it,” Taylor said.
“Our No. 1 priority is public safety,” she added. “And when our officers are the ones potentially responsible, it’s always a concern. We take this very seriously.”
Pittsburgh police responded to the crash around 5:15 a.m. because it happened within city limits: the 1300 block of Saw Mill Run Boulevard (Route 51), near Brookline.
Both vehicles were towed from the scene.
Emily Bourne, a Pittsburgh police spokeswoman, referred additional questions to Mt. Oliver police.
While the mayor touted the need to be transparent with the public, other Mt. Oliver officials kept mum about the crash.
The borough manager deferred all questions to the police chief. Five of the borough’s council members did not return phone calls Thursday. The remaining two, including council President Christina Reft, declined comment.
Staub said the police force’s insurance company spoke with her and is paying for a rental car for six days.
What happens after that is unclear.
“I’m hoping by the end of the six days, they’ll tell me they’re going to get me a new vehicle,” said Staub, who missed two days of work at a North Hills car dealership.
“I have never heard of a cop rear-ending somebody out of the blue like this — it’s not normal,” Staub said. “Cops should be held accountable for the same actions we are.”