Phoenix police officer survives head-on collision, returns to patrol 1 year later

PHOENIX – Phoenix police on Tuesday celebrated the patrol return of an officer who nearly died after a head-on wreck with a drunk driver a year ago.

Officer Chase McCance went back to full duty following months of physical therapy and weeks in a hospital spent recovering from the injuries he suffered in the Jan. 1, 2021, crash near Cactus Road and 28th Street.

He had been on light duty since the summer but set a goal of going back out on the streets.

“Welcome back, Chase, we are so proud of you,” the Phoenix Police Department wrote in a social media post.

On Jan. 1, 2021, Officer Chase McCance was struck head on, by a wrong way drunk driver. Chase fought for his life and won. Today, after more than a year of intensive rehab, he’s hitting the streets again for his first shift back. Welcome back Chase, we are so proud of you. pic.twitter.com/cAMJZUFRG3

— Phoenix Police (@PhoenixPolice) January 11, 2022

McCance was driving westbound around 6 a.m. when a wrong-way driver came at him. He didn’t have time to avoid the collision.

“I don’t remember most of the first couple days in the hospital,” McCance said in a video posted from a summertime visit to his precinct.

“But from hearing everybody talk, there was a good five, six-hour period right at the beginning that I was bleeding internally. They didn’t know what was going on. And at the end of the day, my wife signed a piece of paper saying ‘Go in, cut him open, and find what’s wrong, and save him.'”

McCance was released from the hospital last February. By July, he was strong enough to visit his station. Colleagues presented him with a plaque that featured the license plate and keys of the patrol unit he’d been driving the day of the crash.

“I’ve seen so many different things go badly, and this is something that’s gone well, and it needs to be celebrated,” Lt. William Jou said on the day of the visit, calling McCance’s recovery “a miracle.”

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