A San Diego police pursuit of a stolen luxury SUV ended in a chain-reaction crash near Old Town Sunday afternoon, leaving the 24-year-old driver with a fractured spine and a broken ankle. The man was driving a 2026 white Lexus TX500h northbound in the left lane when he allegedly lost control while trying to evade officers, according to police, slamming into a telephone pole and four parked cars along San Diego Avenue.
The crash happened just before 1:50 p.m. yesterday at 2000 San Diego Ave., according to 10News, which first reported the pursuit and its aftermath. San Diego police pursued the man as he fled in the Lexus, and he reportedly lost control of the SUV while attempting to evade officers, striking the west curb and a telephone pole before the vehicle continued northbound and rear-ended an unoccupied parked car. That impact pushed the parked car west and set off a chain-reaction crash that damaged three additional parked, unoccupied vehicles.
The San Diego Police Department said the driver sustained a fractured T-11 vertebra in his spine and a closed fracture to his right ankle. His identity has not been released. Police reported that no bystanders were injured in the crash, and no officers were hurt either. Investigators have not said whether alcohol or drugs were factors, according to police.
A Chase Near One of San Diego's Busiest Tourist Corridors
The crash site sits adjacent to Old Town San Diego, a historic district known for heavy pedestrian and tourist foot traffic along narrow, multi-use roadways lined with parked vehicles, a geography that underscores the risks inherent whenever a pursuit unfolds in the area. It remains unclear what initially drew officers' attention to the Lexus or where the vehicle was stolen from, and San Diego police have not disclosed those details publicly.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about the incident to contact SDPD or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477. No charges have been announced, and it is unclear what the man will formally face once he is released from medical care. Any allegations regarding the stolen vehicle and evading arrest remain unproven claims at this stage.
How San Diego Law Treats Stolen Vehicles and Police Chases
Under California Vehicle Code Section 10851, driving or taking another person's vehicle without consent — commonly called joyriding or unlawful driving — is punishable by up to three years in prison regardless of whether the driver intended to permanently keep the vehicle, according to FindLaw. Separately, California Vehicle Code Section 2800.2 classifies fleeing a pursuing officer with willful or wanton disregard for the safety of people or property as a wobbler offense carrying up to three years in state prison and fines as high as $10,000, per information published by KEG Lawyers.
California law also allows for enhanced penalties when a pursuit causes serious injury to someone else. Vehicle Code Section 2800.3 elevates the sentence to three, five, or seven years in state prison when willful flight proximately causes serious bodily injury to another person, according to FindLaw. That statute, however, generally applies to injuries suffered by third parties rather than the fleeing driver's own injuries, a distinction that matters here given that the only injuries reported so far belong to the man behind the wheel.
Pursuit Policy Debate Still Simmering in San Diego
This crash lands amid an ongoing local debate over when San Diego police should chase fleeing drivers at all. The San Diego Commission on Police Practices previously urged the department to restrict high-speed pursuits to violent felonies only, following a series of fatal pursuit crashes in recent years, as reported by CBS 8. Those recommendations followed the August 2024 death of SDPD Officer Austin Machitar, who was killed when a fleeing 16-year-old driver hit 125 mph before crashing into a patrol car in Clairemont, a case Hoodline detailed in a CHP reconstruction report.
SDPD partially rejected the commission's recommendations in early 2025, arguing that banning pursuits for property crimes or other non-violent offenses would let reckless offenders flee without consequence, according to the Times of San Diego. Department procedure still requires officers and supervisors to continuously weigh public safety risk against the need for apprehension, terminating a chase when the danger to the public outweighs the benefit of catching the suspect.
Vehicle theft itself has been trending downward across the region. San Diego County saw a 25.7% drop in reported stolen vehicles in 2025, falling to 8,023 cases and marking a second straight year of double-digit declines, per the Times of San Diego. Within the city of San Diego specifically, motor vehicle thefts fell 21.8% in 2025 compared to the prior year, according to city crime statistics, even as incidents like Sunday's crash keep the risks of pursuing stolen-vehicle suspects in the public eye.
