An off-duty New Orleans police officer who struck and killed a cyclist late Sunday night in Central City showed no signs of impairment at the scene of the fatal crash, the department said Monday (May 18).

Officer Eric Prinz had just completed his shift in the NOPD's 2nd District, and was leaving Uptown on South Claiborne Avenue when police said a 70-year-old man riding a bike ignored a red light and crossed into the path of the officer's Ford F-150 pickup truck at the intersection with Martin Luther King Boulevard.

The cyclist, who has not been publicly identified, was struck shortly after 11 p.m., police said, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

NOPD spokesman Tyler Gamble said Monday that Prinz, 35, was subjected to a standard field sobriety test at the crash scene, which included a breathalyzer test.

"The results were negative and the officers who responded to the scene did not see any signs of impairment," Gamble said.

Prinz is a veteran patrol officer with 61/2 years on the force, Gamble said. The department said Prinz had just completed a standard second platoon shift from 2:25 p.m. to 11 p.m., and had not worked any off-duty details earlier in the day.

An overnight news release issued by the department said, "According to witnesses, the bicyclist was traveling northbound on Martin Luther King Boulevard when, for reasons unknown, (he) disregarded a red light" and was hit by Prinz's gray truck.

Employees at three businesses near the intersection said Monday morning that they knew of no witnesses to the accident. A review of video surveillance recordings at the businesses showed the accident occurred at a spot of the intersection just out of range of their cameras. Video recordings did show traffic behind the accident coming to a halt on South Claiborne Avenue and police vehicles with flashing lights arriving between 10:58 p.m. and 11:02 p.m., according to the timestamps in the videos from the businesses.

The South Claiborne-MLK intersection is known to be one of the most dangerous in the city. According to the most recently available statistics, covering the 12 weeks between Feb. 7 and May 2, the intersection ranked first in New Orleans for both the number of injury accidents (eight) and non-injury accidents (36).

The NOPD said Prinz was not injured and was not subjected to a blood test. Blood toxicology tests will be performed on the cyclist by the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office as part of a standard autopsy protocol, police said.

Gamble said the department's Public Integrity Bureau had not yet answered whether Prinz had any history of disciplinary action involving drugs or alcohol since joining the force, but that it did not appear to be a factor in the accident, which remains under investigation by NOPD's Traffic Fatalities unit.

Anyone with information on the accident is encouraged to contact traffic fatality investigators at 504.658.6210.

The NOPD initially provided an incorrect spelling for Prinz's name, which was in an earlier version of this story.