Investigators are trying to determine if Monday morning’s bright sunshine was a contributing factor in a wreck that injured a Union City police officer and three other people.

A police department-issued SUV was involved in a multi-vehicle crash about 8:10 a.m. on South Fulton Parkway at Cascade Palmetto Highway, according to Fulton police spokeswoman Kay Lester.

The officer, James Messer, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in stable condition, Union City police spokeswoman Det. Gloria Hodgson said.

Three other people involved in the chain-reaction wreck were taken to hospitals, and were also in stable condition, Hodgson said. “Pluto,” the K9 officer in the police SUV, was taken to a local veterinarian to be checked out, but is expected to be OK, she said.

“From what it appears, the sun may have been a factor, the way that the sun is on the road at this time of the morning,” Hodgson said, adding the the cause of the wreck is still under investigation.

About the same time as that wreck, Fulton County police were working a second bad collision on Ga. 138 at Westbridge Road.

Police initially reported that a person was killed, but Lester said just before 10 a.m. that, “I am now being advised that there is no fatality.”

She said one person was flown to Piedmont Fayettevile Hospital and two were taken by ambulance to Grady. Their conditions and identities were not immediately available.

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