A head-on crash involving a Toronto police cruiser has left a male officer with a fractured and dislocated pelvis and a civilian woman with a fractured right ankle.

The cruiser collided with the vehicle near the intersection of Midland Avenue and Lawrence Avenue East at around 12:40 p.m. Thursday.

The cruiser was one of three travelling along Midland Avenue with lights and sirens on and trying to navigate around vehicles that weren't pulling over, witnesses said.

"The one cop went to merge into oncoming traffic, I guess to get around. And there was a lady there and they hit head on. And it was the loudest bang you've ever heard," said Jeffrey Regular, who witnessed the crash.

"Never seen an accident like that before in my life."

Recent cruiser crashes

Thursday’s crash wasn’t the first time that a Toronto police cruiser has been involved in a collision this year.

On January 13, a police cruiser collided with a TTC bus in the city's east end.

Four months later, a police cruiser was struck on the Gardiner Expressway. An officer suffered neck and back injuries as a result of the May 14 collision.

A driver fled the scene of a collision on June 28, which left an officer with minor injuries.

Late last month, a pedestrian was struck and killed by a police cruiser that was leading a funeral procession.

The debris of the cruiser was scattered in a wide radius from the site of the crash scene.

The officer was trapped in his vehicle for about 15 minutes before being extricated. An Ornge air ambulance was called to the scene, but he was ultimately taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Following the crash, Midland Avenue was closed between Ellesmere Road and Lawrence Avenue East in both directions.

The Special Investigations Unit, which probes any incidents involving police that resulted in death or serious injuries, is now investigating the crash.

A news release the SIU issued on Thursday afternoon said that both the injured officer and the 57-year-old woman were taken to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre for treatment of their injuries.

The SIU said the police car was headed south on Midland Avenue at the time of the collision, while the civilian vehicle was driving north.

Three SIU investigators, two forensic investigators and a collision reconstruction expert are now probing the circumstances of the crash.

With files from @jlancastercbc