A police officer will face a criminal charge after a seafront crash left a man with broken ribs.

PC Russell Kyle will appear before Brighton magistrates next week after the incident in King’s Road in Brighton on Tuesday, September 19 last year.

Pictures from the scene show the smashed windscreen on the patrol car facing the oncoming traffic.

It is understood that the officer was responding to a 999 call at the time of the crash.

The incident caused chaos on the seafront which was closed to rush hour traffic in both directions.

Bars and hotels were also affected in the wide police cordon, with witnesses having to give statements to the police, and staff at the Pitcher and Piano handing over CCTV footage.

A 59-year-old man suffered broken ribs and cuts to the face after being hit by the car, and an ambulance was called.

He was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital for treatment.

Chris Kimmel, 19, from Essex, who was sitting outside Bar Rogue, said: “The first thing I saw was a man lying in the road and police cars everywhere.

“It was horrible.”

One man, who was sitting on the beach nearby, said he heard a “loud thud” and then a woman screaming.

He added: “I raced up the steps to see what had happened and the man was lying in the road.”

The Argus reported at the time that it was the second incident in little more than a month, after 79-year-old David Ormesher, from Poole in Dorset, was hit in Edward Street in Brighton on August 25 last year.

The pensioner died at the scene at around 2am.

More recently a man and a woman were injured while riding a bicycle in Brighton city centre when they were hit by a patrol car earlier this month.

Again it is understood the police were responding to a 999 call at the time, and a turned into Queen’s Road where the crash happened.

Police have launched Operation Elgar after a 20-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman were taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

The crash last September was referred by Sussex Police for investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), formerly the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Investigators from the IOPC have handed over a final report to Sussex Police, concluding that PC Kyle may have committed gross misconduct.

In March, the IOPC also handed over a file to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Now PC Kyle faces the criminal charge of dangerous driving. So the officer will also face a misconduct hearing alongside the court proceedings.

He will appear at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, June 28.