KITCHENER - A local police officer has been charged with making an unsafe U-turn after crashing her cruiser while responding to a call Saturday morning.

The 26-year-old officer and the driver of the car she hit, a 62-year-old Kitchener woman, were treated for minor injuries and released from hospital after the collision just before 8:30 a.m.

St. Sgt. Paul Driedger said the officer was travelling on Ottawa Street South near Howe Drive when she tried to tried to reverse her direction and collided with the front of an oncoming car, causing what Diedger described as "significant" damage.

It was the first of two crashes involving Waterloo Regional Police cruisers within about half an hour and less than two kilometers of each other.

In the second collision at Ottawa and Homer Watson Boulevard four people including an officer were treated for minor injuries.

Driedger said the 44-year-old officer had a male prisoner in the back of her cruiser when she stopped for a red light about 9 a.m.

After pulling into the intersection when the traffic signals changed, she was hit by a car driven by a 41-year-old Kitchener woman who allegedly failed to stop for the red light in her direction.

The impact to the rear passenger side spun the cruiser around and it came to rest on an island after hitting a sign post.

The officer, her prisoner, the driver of the car and a female passenger were all treated for minor injuries at the hospital. Two other passengers in the car weren't hurt.

Driedger said damage to the cruiser was "extensive." Charges against the driver of the car are pending as an investigation continues.