A wild high-speed chase through Adams County led to the arrest of a Portland man this past Sunday. The driver, whose reckless trip reached speeds of up to 150 miles per hour, ended with a crash that involved multiple vehicles and a guardrail.
According to KHQ, officers first received reports of a black BMW barreling down I-90 towards the Tri-Cities area. The Washington State Patrol informed the Adams County deputies of the speeding vehicle, which lacked license plates, thus initiating the pursuit. Deputies spotted and tried to stop the car along south US-395, but the driver refused to comply, said that authorities.
The Franklin County Sheriff's Office assisted in the effort to curb the excessive speeder's path, resulting in his capture. Apple Valley News Now reported that the chase began just before 12:30 p.m., with the state patrol having enough evidence to apprehend the driver initially for fleeing from law enforcement.
The chase raised concerns for public safety, which led to a tactical approach. "These are hard situations when you have a vehicle go by you at such high rates of speed. We have several legal prongs where reckless behavior other than speed or potential DUI allows us to pursue, but we didn't really have anything like that in this case - just the incredibly-high speeds. So it's hard because we're forced to hang back and observe until we have another reason to pursue, or until there's a collision involved," WSP Sergeant Greg Riddell explained to KPQ. Eventually, the pursuit ended with the BMW crashing into a guardrail after hitting two other cars.
The 33-year-old man from Portland was apprehended by the authorities and now faces charges associated with the dangerous episode. The identity of the driver has not been disclosed, and further details regarding his arraignment and the specifics of the charges are pending.
