A crash in Garfield that followed a police chase and seriously injured an older couple -- one of them the cousin of a Common Pleas judge -- has caused some residents to criticize police pursuits.

Antonio Zottola, cousin of Judge John A. Zottola, and his wife, Josephine, were in their Cadillac on Mossfield Street around 6 p.m. Tuesday when a sport utility vehicle driven by Richard Broaden, 23, of Knoxville, crashed into them.

The Zottolas, of East Liberty, remained hospitalized yesterday, Mr. Zottola in serious condition and Mrs. Zottola in critical. Judge Zottola declined comment.

Another person, identified in police paperwork as Nicole Orwic, was forced to swerve out of the way of the Dodge Durango driven by Mr. Broaden.

Mr. Broaden was arraigned on 21 charges, including aggravated assault and accidents involving death or personal injury. He was held in lieu of $50,000 straight bond.

The incident marked the second time in less than a month that civilians were injured in a crash involving a Pittsburgh police pursuit. Two people were killed and six injured May 25 in Homewood when a driver fleeing police ran a red light and caused a collision.

Yesterday, some residents and people who work near Mossfield Street complained about police chases through the neighborhood.

"The police should stop chasing people through here, because there's kids all over," said Geo McCain, 21, of Mathilda Street, which intersects with Mossfield.

Police chases "are too dangerous. The senior citizens buildings don't have a stop sign and they can't even cross the street," said Shirley McCoy, president of the Garfield Heights Tenant Council, referring to the east end of Mossfield, which is lined on one side by senior citizen townhouses and the Garfield Heights public housing complex on the other. "The police are too aggressive."

Not everyone agreed. Darlene Vixler, 66, a neighbor of Mr. McCain, said most motorists exceed the posted speed limits in the area, but police tend to be more cautious.

Mrs. Vixler said she saw the suspect speed past her home, followed by a number of police vehicles that all were moving at or slightly above the posted speed limit of 25 mph.

"This street is bad for speeding," Mrs. Vixler said. "I don't know how there aren't more accidents here."

As northbound traffic merges from Mathilda onto Mossfield, the speed limit increases to 35 mph for nearly a mile. It reverts to 25 mph at Schenley Avenue, a block short of the collision occurred.

"I've nicknamed it 'Mossfield International Speedway.' I got hit myself one day pulling out of here in my personal vehicle," said Wes Notovitz, a city paramedic whose station is on Mossfield.

Mr. Notovitz pointed across the street at sections of new fencing surrounding Allegheny Cemetery, put in after crashes over the years.

Police said Mr. Broaden was fleeing officers from the Street Response Unit who tried to pull him over in the Hill District for playing music too loud and failing to signal a turn.

Deputy Chief Earl D. Woodyard Jr. said Tuesday that the pursuit had been terminated prior to the crash.

However, it was unclear yesterday whether all of the officers involved in the chase heard the termination order. Some police officers suggested that it would not have mattered because the pursuing units were far from the accident scene at the time Mr. Broaden crashed into the Zottolas.

Lt. Reyne Kacsuta of the Zone 5 station in East Liberty, which covers Garfield, ordered the pursuit to be halted on the police radio channel for her precinct. Around that time, some of the officers involved in the pursuit were switching over from the channel that covers Zone 2, which includes the Hill District. None of the chase cars was from Zone 5.

Communication among police units and dispatchers was confused during portions of the pursuit, with more than one person trying to transmit at the same time and with a dispatcher repeatedly asking for details of what was happening and where the various units were.

Robert Full, the county's emergency operations director, declined to make available a copy of the 911 tape of the pursuit or a transcript of the recording, citing county policy.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Dominic J. Costa and Deputy Chief Woodyard were out of the office yesterday and unavailable for comment.

"We are continuing to investigate this matter and are not going to comment on investigative details at this time," police spokeswoman Tammy Ewin said.

The Pittsburgh police chase policy, a five-page document, says, "It is the policy of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police that a motor vehicle pursuit is justified only when the necessity of immediate apprehension outweighs the level of danger created by pursuit."

Police familiar with the chase Tuesday said it did not take place at high speed because the suspect drove on many short streets and made many turns.

The incident began in the Schenley Heights section of the Hill District around 5:30 p.m. when three members of the Street Response Unit -- officers David Honick, Paul Kirby and Paul Roetter -- heard music blasting from the Durango.

They tried to pull the vehicle over after it turned without signaling, but it failed to stop. On Milwaukee Street, the SUV veered into the path of another police car occupied by officers David Condon and Robert Smith.

Officers believe someone in the vehicle threw an object -- possibly a gun -- out the window while it was still in the Hill District. Police were checking reports that someone in another vehicle stopped and retrieved the object.

The chase went onto the Bloomfield Bridge, into Friendship and finally onto Penn Avenue in Garfield.

Police pursuit policy has attracted the attention of the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board, which has scheduled a public meeting Tuesday on the issue.

Division Chief Steven Jones of the Orange County sheriff's office in Florida said police departments across the country have been increasingly restricting their chase policies.

Chief Jones said his department first stopped chasing people for traffic violations, then expanded it to include stolen cars. Recently, he said, the department stopped pursuing nonviolent offenders.

"It's not anti-pursuit. It's safer chases," Chief Jones said. "It does not make sense in today's society when you have busy roads to chase people for nonviolent crimes when the chances are they'll be out of jail before you're done with your paperwork."