BUTLER TWP — A Butler city police officer was injured Wednesday afternoon when a suspected drunken driver rear-ended his patrol vehicle pulled off Whitestown Road in the township.

Patrolman David Villotti was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital and later released. He was taken by city police.

“He has whiplash-type symptoms,” said Butler police Capt. David Dalcamo, “but (doctors) did not believe he has a concussion.”

A K-9 officer, Blade, that was riding with Villotti in the department's sport utility vehicle was not injured.

Butler Township police said the accident occurred about 2 p.m. on Whitestown Road near the former Lyndora fire station where Villotti had stopped a 24-year-old Butler woman in a car for speeding.

The officer was seated in the SUV writing a citation when the other vehicle driven by an 18-year-old Renfrew man slammed into the back of it.

The collision pushed the police vehicle into the back of the suspected speeder's car. The woman was seated in her car but she was not hurt.

Butler Township police Lt. Matthew Pearson said the police vehicle was stopped on the side of the westbound lane. He said there was sufficient room for other westbound vehicles to safely pass.

Police said the 18-year-old driver, who they did not identify, smelled of alcohol and showed other signs of being impaired.

He later failed field sobriety tests and was taken to BMH for a blood test. Toxicology tests are pending, Pearson said. So, too, are charges against the teenager.

Both the police patrol vehicle and the Renfrew man's car were towed. The woman's car sustained only minor damage.

But because of the chain-reaction crash and the aftermath, the woman was not ticketed.

“Due to circumstances,” Dalcamo said, “the original offender was released from the scene without being cited.”

Eagle staff writers Will DeShong and Jim Smith contributed to this report.