Motorcycle cop fair after crash

A Metro Police motorcycle officer was in fair condition at University Medical Center this morning after being injured when a car pulled in front of his police motorcycle Saturday afternoon.

Officer Jeffery Roch, 28, was headed south on Jones Boulevard approaching Elkhorn Road on a 2001 Harley-Davidson police motorcycle when he collided with a Ford sedan eastbound on Elkhorn Road.

Witnesses said that the driver of the Ford, Deretha Holub, 37, failed to yield right of way to Roch after stopping at a stop sign at the intersection of Jones and Elkhorn, police said.

Roch, an officer for about three years, was unable to avoid a collision and struck the left side of the car, injuring his chest, police said.

Roch was taken to UMC, and Holub has been cited for failure to yield right of way from a stop sign.

The last Metro officer seriously injured in the line of duty was Officer Pete Rossi, who was shot in the face while arriving on the scene of a robbery in June. Rossi was shot through the windshield of his patrol car by a suspect running out the back door of the Macayo Vegas restaurant, 4457 West Charleston Blvd. Rossi was blinded in one eye.

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