Intervention stopped the stolen van, but sent the police driver to the hospital and his cruiser to the crusher
https://www.carscoops.com/author/chris-chilton-cc/
by Chris Chilton
2 hours ago
U-Haul got itself a questionable bit of free publicity this month when a pair of 21-year-old men from Michigan led police on a high-speed chase across two states in a stolen van, the dashcam footage from the encounter prominently highlighting the bargain $19.95 in-town rental rate.
The invoice the police will receive for the damage caused to their own vehicles while trying to stop the van, however, will be slightly bigger. One cruiser, which brought the chase to a head by performing a pit maneuver at almost 100 mph (160 km/h), ended up rolling multiple times into the verge, and most of the other vehicles involved in finally bringing the van to a halt also seemed to suffer damage. Honestly, the bill is going to be huge.
The action began in eastern Oklahoma and concluded in Tontiton, Arkansas, Tontitown Police reporting that the vehicles reached speeds of 120 mph (193 km/h) in places. Presumably downhill ones. One innocent driver, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time early on in the pursuit, was struck head-on by the runaway van, but the U-Haul kept on hauling until it was finally spun out of the game with a tap on the rear.
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Fortunately, the police driver who pulled the pit maneuver was found to be uninjured though he was checked over in a hospital as a precaution. The runaways, on the other hand, were checked into Benton County Detention Center having been charged with a long list of offenses including three counts of aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy, possession of destructive devices, felony fleeing, battery 2nd degree, four counts of criminal mischief and resisting arrest.
The van – which, unlike the cop car that spun it, didn’t roll in the collision – reportedly contained Molotov cocktails and firearms. Furthermore, the occupants were allegedly found to be wanted by the Westland, Michigan authorities for attempting to run over multiple police officers. Nice guys. The good news is that neither will be getting back behind the wheel for a while.
The video above shows you the POV action from the pitting cop car, and the video below adds footage from other cars involved in the chase.