Report: Officer was speeding, responding to call before wreck

Officer D.V. Naumuk, 28, was traveling north at 77 mph in a 35 mph zone while Edwin Keith Cannon, 28, of Raleigh, was turning a 1998 Ford SUV left from a private driveway at 311 Jones Franklin Road around 8:40 p.m., the report says. Naumuk veered left and then right, but the vehicles collided, and the SUV overturned.

"Next thing I know, I am flipped upside down, and I am laying right there. I crawled out of the truck," Cannon said. "I'm just amazed I am alive."

Cannon was treated for minor injuries and released from Rex Hospital. He said he received abrasions and got some glass in his head.

Naumuk and Cadet Patrick Thomas Browne, 22, who was doing a ride-along in the cruiser, were not injured.

Cannon said that he was moving into the house this weekend.

A check-in call, such as Naumuk was responding, which means that an officer believes it will be wiser to handle a situation with two or more officers, Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue said. It doesn't imply immediate danger but is considered a high priority for officers' safety, Sughrue said.

Vegetation obscured the both drivers' field of vision, the report says.

The report says that Naumuk slowed to 57 mph and left tire impressions for 68 feet and that Cannon had begun his turn and was merging onto Jones Franklin at 5 mph when the collision occurred. The vehicles traveled between 35 and 39 feet after the wreck.

"The speed that he was coming at, there was no time to react," Cannon said.

Drugs or alcohol are not suspected in the wreck, according to the report.

Sughrue said that the investigation was ongoing and charges were pending. Investigators were looking at whether the cruiser's lights and sirens were on.

"There were no sirens. The only noise we heard was the brakes lock up," witness Vaughan Davis said.

"I'm just glad that we are both safe right now," Cannon said.