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Police in California initiated a high-speed chase after a hit-and-run driver refused to stop. Unfortunately for the runaway motorist, the daring attempted escape didn’t lose his police tail. Instead, the attempted escape culminated in a crash. 

CHP officers chased a hit-and-run driver until the criminal crashed his wounded Toyota Tacoma

California Highway Patrol (CHP) responded to reports of a hit-and-run accident at around 3:00 a.m. When CHP officers attempted to stop the suspect in the white Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, the driver wouldn’t relent. The driver’s refusal to stop initiated a high-speed chase between the criminal and the pursuing police officers.

Police chased the Toyota pickup truck up the road and toward an intersection. According to an eyewitness account, police officers deployed a tire deflation device (TDD). A TDD, often called a “spike strip,” punctures tires in an attempt to slow and ultimately stop target vehicles. In this case, the countermeasure contributed to the hit-and-run driver losing control of the truck. 

“He came barreling up the road, CHP right behind him. He hits the spike strips, loses it, and boom,” an eyewitness on the scene told CBS News. The boom that the witness described was the violent impact between the Tacoma and the pole on the opposite end of the intersection. 

Authorities assert that “alcohol may have been involved” in the unfortunate event. Fortunately, reports don’t mention any bystander injuries. The extent of the hit-and-run driver’s injuries isn’t clear at this time.

Of course, high-speed chases and police pursuits aren’t as rare as you might think. Police officers engage in many pursuits every day nationwide. Understandably, police department policies often mandate that officers terminate pursuits due to dangerous circumstances like traffic density or triple-digit speeds.

This hit-and-run driver chase could have been much worse, too. According to USA Today, police pursuits have claimed the lives of over 11,500 people since the end of the 1970s. More worryingly, over 5,000 of those deaths were “non-violators.” High-speed chases are dangerous business.

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