It was an ordinary Wednesday afternoon and Andrea Ratey was on her way to Walmart at Colony Place.
She was driving along Federal Furnace Road, turning onto Seven Hills Road, when her life changed in an instant.
A young man in a muscle car struck her compact SUV with such force that the rear section of Ratey’s car was demolished.
Ratey, a hair stylist, was seriously injured in the Jan. 31 crash, according to her lawyer, Robert Ahearn. She suffered a head injury, fractured ribs, a sprained shoulder, and bruises all over her body. Fluid built up around her heart, he said.
Her injuries have made it hard for her to do her job, Ahearn said.
The crash may not have happened if a Plymouth police officer hadn’t been pursuing the speeding driver of the Dodge Challenger that struck her Toyota Rav4, Ahearn says.
Ratey filed a lawsuit last week in Plymouth Superior Court against the town and the officer, Zach Sweeney, accusing him of negligence when he chased the other driver, Owen Peters, who was allegedly speeding to elude the officer.
Town and police officials declined comment on the case, or the allegations made in the lawsuit.
Sweeney knew, or should have known, that the pursuit endangered the public, Ahearn wrote in the suit.
“The police officer created a very dangerous condition by continuing a high speed chase on a public street, all over a speeding violation,” Ahearn told the Independent.
“The whole incident could have been avoided,” he said. “The officer had the driver’s license plate and could have just issued a speeding ticket instead of commencing a high-speed pursuit.”
“As a result, my client was severely injured and was lucky she was not killed.”
In February Peters, 25, of New Bedford, was criminally charged.
In July, he admitted sufficient facts to negligent operation of a motor vehicle and was also found responsible for failing to stop for police.
He was placed on probation until January 21, 2026, and ordered to take a course called “Brains at Risk and Attitudinal Dynamics of Driving.”
If he remains crime free, the charges will be dismissed in 2026. His lawyer, Krysten Condon, could not be reached for comment.
Peters’ insurer paid a claim filed by Ratey, Ahearn said.
But the town has refused to pay anything. On Aug. 7, it denied liability for the accident. Under state law any judgment would be capped at $100,000.
Sweeney was disciplined by the police department in January for violating the town’s pursuit policy on the day of the accident, according to the state’s POST commission, which tracks substantiated complaints against police officers.
He was suspended and ordered retrained in the department’s pursuit policy, according to POST.
The Plymouth Police Department did not respond to requests for a copy of the policy.
Many police departments, including Boston’s, instruct officers to refrain from engaging in a pursuit except in the direst of circumstances, such as to prevent a death or bodily harm to another person.
In his report, Sweeney didn’t note his own speed, but implied that he wasn’t driving as fast as Peters because he lost sight of him at one point. He also noted that Peters was endangering the public by speeding.
According to his police report, Sweeney was parked at the old Shaw’s parking lot on Pilgrim Hill Road at 5:45 p.m. when he spotted the blue Challenger, its tires squealing, spinning and smoking.
As the officer turned on his blue lights to try to stop him, Peters allegedly sped away. Sweeney followed.
When Sweeney arrived at the intersection of Federal Furnace and Seven Hills roads, he saw the wreckage of Peters’ car. He couldn’t see Ratey’s 2015 red Rav 4, which had landed on a paved traffic island in the middle of the intersection.
“The rear passenger’s side had been almost completely ripped off the rest of the vehicle,” wrote Plymouth police detective Michael Webber, who responded to the scene.
“There were several car parts scattered all over the area,” he wrote.
The 2016 Challenger also was totaled, police wrote.
Meanwhile, Ratey faces possible surgery to repair her injured shoulder, Ahearn said. She has already incurred more than $20,000 in medical bills.
The town had to replace a yellow sign in the traffic island where Ratey’s car landed. It was knocked over during the accident. The sign warns drivers of a potential hazard ahead.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.