CLAREMONT — A Claremont police officer was distracted by his cellphone and speeding through Draper’s Corner while responding to a house fire when he caused a five-vehicle crash in April that injured several people, including himself, according to documents obtained by the Valley News.

Officer Joshua Peavey had activated his cruiser’s emergency lights but didn’t turn on the siren, drove roughly 43 mph through the 30 mph intersection of Charlestown Road and Maple Avenue and failed to slow down “as may be necessary,” in violation of state law and department policy, according to an accident report by the New Hampshire State Police.

Peavey was not cited with any violations in the crash.

Peavey told New Hampshire State Police Trooper Michael Catalfamo, who investigated the crash, that he was talking on his cellphone using the speaker function of the phone and glanced down at the device around 1:20 p.m. on April 4 as he went through the intersection. It was then that he collided with a vehicle making a left-hand turn from Maple Avenue onto Charlestown Road, which is also Route 11; Peavey had a red light at the time, while the other driver had a green light, according to the trooper’s report, which the Valley News requested from New Hampshire State Polic e on Aug. 21 and received in the mail on Tuesday.

After Peavey collided with the first vehicle, he then veered off to the right, where he struck three other vehicles, who were all stopped at the intersection, the report states.

Catalfamo determined that Peavey operated the vehicle in an “inattentive, careless, negligent, or erratic manner.” At the time of the crash, Peavey was distracted because he was “talking on (a) hand-held electronic device,” Catalfamo wrote.

Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase said the phone was in Peavey’s hand at the time of the crash. New Hampshire has a hands-free cellphone law, which went into effect in 2015, although there are some exceptions related to reporting an emergency to public safety.

Peavey also wasn’t wearing his seat belt at the time of the crash, which is against Claremont Police Department policy; he instead had a “seatbelt alarm stopper” placed into the buckle to simulate that he had his seatbelt on, according to one of the reports.

Peavey, who was responding to a fire that destroyed a home near the Cornish town line, sustained a neck injury and was transported to Valley Regional Hospital. Two passengers in the vehicle Peavey struck first also suffered neck injuries and were transported to the Claremont hospital. The driver of one of the other vehicles suffered injuries, but wasn’t transported, the report states.

The names of the other motorists are redacted in the report.

Catalfamo said in an email on Wednesday that he has been instructed by his superiors to not discuss the topic and he referred questions to a superior.

State Police Sgt. Michael Kokoski said it is not uncommon for a motorist who caused a crash to not be cited for violations. Citations, which are punitive in nature, are an attempt to change a behavior, something that oftentimes is accomplished by repercussions of being at-fault in a crash, he said.

“He felt that was the appropriate outcome based on the facts,” Kokoski said of Catalfamo.

Messages left for Peavey this week weren’t returned.

Peavey, who has worked for the Claremont Police Department for about 2 ½ years and grew up in Lebanon, is still employed as a patrol officer there, Chase said.

Chase, who had refused to identify the officer involved when asked earlier by the Valley News,declined to comment on whether the Claremont Police Department sanctioned Peavey for his conduct in the crash. That is a personnel matter and therefore is exempt under the state’s public record’s law, Chase said.

The Claremont Police Department conducted an internal review of the crash, but the findings associated with that also aren’t subject to release, Chase asserted.

“We have a policy for when an officer is involved in an accident,” Chase said. “If there are any issues … we address them.”

Messages left for all three members of the Claremont Police Commission weren’t returned.

The cruiser was totaled in the crash. The town’s insurance company, Primex, handled that matter, said Chase, adding that he wasn’t sure what the financial impact was.

State Police redacted all of the names of the drivers and passengers involved in the April crash, except for Peavey.

David M. Hilts, the legal counsel in the commissioner’s office at the New Hampshire Department of Safety, said their names are not disclosable under the Driver Privacy Act, which states that Division of Motor Vehicle records are confidential. However, there is an exemption for information tied to an accident involving a government-owned vehicle, he said, which is why Peavey’s name was not redacted.

However, the names of drivers who State Police choose to put in a news release and send out to the public aren’t bound by the same law, Hilts said.

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.