N.M. police car escorting Biden in crash

ALBUQUERQUE, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A Bernalillo County (N.M.) Sheriff's deputy escorting the motorcade of Vice President Joe Biden was involved in a collision in Albuquerque Monday, police said.

Investigators said a woman drove her car around two police units that had been blocking an intersection for the motorcade when she hit a car driven by a sheriff's department sergeant whose name was not reported, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

The sergeant was taken to a hospital for evaluation but there was no report of any injuries or arrests. The sheriff's department would not say whether Biden's vehicle had already passed the scene before the collision, the newspaper said.

It's the second time in a week a vehicle associated with a Biden motorcade has been involved in a collision.

Two Secret Service employees were driving an armored sport utility vehicle and a limousine in Temple Hill, Md., last Wednesday when they struck and killed a man at an intersection, the U.S. Park Police said. Biden wasn't in either vehicle when the crash occurred.

In August 2007, a Rio Rancho, N.M., motorcycle officer in a motorcade for President George W. Bush died after a crash near Albuquerque, and another officer was injured in February 2006 during a motorcade in the Albuquerque area, the newspaper said.

Biden was in Albuquerque Monday for a fundraiser for Reps. Martin Heinrich and Harry Teague, both first-term Democrats.