A San Diego police officer was killed and another was critically injured when a speeding vehicle crashed into their patrol car, the police chief said Tuesday. The speeding driver also was killed.

The crash occurred late Monday after a vehicle was spotted traveling at high speed on a boulevard.

An officer tried to make a traffic stop, but the vehicle failed to stop, and a brief pursuit began, Chief Scott Wahl told reporters, noting the information was preliminary.

�Due to a high rate of speed, a supervisor terminated that pursuit,� he said. �Two officers working together in one vehicle were responding to that fleeing suspect, and ultimately the suspect vehicle collided at a high rate of speed into the side of their vehicle.�

The officer driving the police car died at the scene, and the other officer was hospitalized in intensive care, where he was �fighting for his life,� the chief said.

Neither the officers nor the speeding driver were publicly identified. A couple of other cars were involved in the crash, but those drivers had no significant injuries, he said.

The California Highway Patrol has been asked to investigate independently, with a full reconstruction of exactly what happened, Wahl said.

�There�s a lot of information that�s going to be coming forward, and there�s a lot of questions that we all have,� he said.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported this month that a city oversight commission that reviewed data from more than 1,000 San Diego police pursuits recommended a dozen changes to policy, including engaging only in pursuits related to violent crimes.

(AP)