BusPlus announcement postponed after crash

PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Cook

A brief Albany Police pursuit of a suspected drunk driver ended with a pedestrian suffering minor injuries and a bus shelter severely damaged.

The incident also had unexpected effects hours later, with a CDTA news conference related to new offerings on its BusPlus service being postponed, a CDTA official confirmed.

The news conference, which was to include U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko and CDTA officials, had been scheduled for Tuesday morning, at the bus shelter damaged in the chase.

The suspect in the chase, identified as William Colclough, 54, of 1700 Western Ave., suffered facial injuries and was taken to Albany Medical Center for treatment.

The incident began just before 1 a.m. Tuesday, when police received a call of a man acting suspicious inside his parked vehicle on Manning Boulevard.

The man was revving his engine for 30 minutes and was possibly drunk, the caller told police.

Officers arrived and approached Colclough, but he refused to roll down his window. The driver then continued to rev the engine, then put the car in reverse, backing up and narrowly missing the officer, police said.

The driver hit a parked car and fled.

Officers chased the vehicle west onto Central Avenue. The driver then struck a car waiting at a red light, then crossed the eastbound lanes, hit the utility pole, the pedestrian and the bus shelter. The suspect was taken into custody at the scene. Colclough faces charges of driving while intoxicated and assault. Other charges are expected.

The driver of the car struck at the red light was not injured.

Colclough was to be arraigned Tuesday.

The CDTA press conference was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the 900 Central Ave. shelter, at which officials were to introduce new “intelligent transit” technologies to provide travel information for BusPlus customers, officials said.

BusPlus is a limited stop service introduced in April along Route 5.

The news conference is to be rescheduled for the near future.