Suspect Driver, Passenger Sustain Major Injuries In High-Speed Pursuit Crash
STOCKTON (CBS13) — A high-speed chase down Highway 99, with speeds reaching 120 miles an hour, all came to a screeching stop after the driver crashes into another car in a busy Stockton intersection.
"Cops were swarming the area. I saw like five or six cop cars and they already had their guns pulled and I'm like, okay that's a bad sign," said Jose Cueva, who witnessed the crash.
An officer tried to pull over a driver in a gold Nissan for a traffic violation, but the driver took off.
Officers say he was going around 120 miles an hour as he was exiting the highway at Hammer Lane, so they called off the pursuit, deciding it's just too dangerous to chase the driver through streets packed with businesses, neighborhoods, and schools.
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"Fortunately CHP air operations were overhead," CHP Officer Ruben Jones said.
With the CHP plane overhead, officers were able to track the driver as he sped down Hammer Lane, eventually crashing into another car.
"I just hear this giant screech and I went, 'what the hell?' And I see this brown-khaki car ramming through as fast as it could and it hits the sidewalk and flips," Cueva said.
With the Nissan flipped on its roof, police move in. Surrounding the car, and both people inside.
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"I heard one officer yell, 'Get out of the car. Put your hands up,'" Cueva said.
Both people inside the car were rushed to the hospital, with major injuries. So was the driver in the car that was hit. That person is expected to be okay. Just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The identities of the people in the suspect car have not yet been released.
The CHP said they do not know why the driver took off, but they hope to get some answers tomorrow.