Officer, responding to bank robbery, charged in county traffic accident

A Charlottesville police officer has been charged after crashing as he scrambled to get to a bank robbery.

Officer Kyle Boynton, 25, was trying to exit a shopping center when his unmarked 2006 Ford Taurus collided with a car driving on U.S. 29, said Albemarle County police Lt. Todd Hopwood.

Boynton works for the Charlottesville Police Department, but the accident occurred in Albemarle.

Boynton remains on duty with the police department, but will face an accident review board, said city spokesman Ric Barrick.

Hopwood said the driver of the car that collided with Boynton’s slowed, because it heard the Taurus’s siren, but couldn’t figure out where the noise was coming from.

Because it was his responsibility to make sure the way was clear, Boynton has been charged with failure to yield the right of way, Hopwood said.

“[The use of lights and sirens] requests the right of way,” Hopwood said. “It doesn’t give the right of way.”

Boynton and another person in his car were taken to the hospital with very minor injuries, Hopwood said. The driver of the other car reported being a bit banged up, but wasn’t taken to the hospital, Hopwood said.

Boynton was responding to the Tuesday robbery of the Wachovia bank at 10th Street Northeast and East High Street.

About noon, a man handed a teller a note demanding money and got away on foot.

Police have released a photograph of the suspect, who is described as about 6 feet tall and white, wearing a brown hooded pullover, a white T-shirt, blue jeans, a red-and-black winter hat and sunglasses. They’re asking anyone with information to call Crimestoppers at 977-4000.