WOODLAND HILLS : Police Sergeant Hurt in Traffic Accident

A Los Angeles police sergeant on her way to the scene of a robbery suffered minor injuries Thursday when her police car collided with a truck in Woodland Hills, authorities said.

Sgt. Corina Gabrielle Smith, of the West Valley Division, was headed west on Ventura Boulevard about 11 a.m. when she hit a truck pulling out of a Union 76 gas station near DeSoto Avenue. Smith stepped out of the police car after the crash, then fainted and fell to the ground, said Sgt. Roger Ferguson, of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Smith, who was wearing a seat belt, suffered a sprained left clavicle, shoulder and arm in the traffic accident. She was treated and released at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Ferguson said.

The driver of the truck, Mikal Copple, 28, of Bakersfield, suffered minor injuries but told officers he would get medical attention on his own. Copple was also wearing a seat belt, said Victor Martin, a traffic investigator.

Martin said Smith, an six-year LAPD veteran, was driving between 45 and 60 m.p.h. to get to the intersection of Fallbrook Avenue and Ventura when she totaled her black-and-white, Ferguson said.