Wrong-Way Driver Kills Four in Cop Chase
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(MIAMI) — A Miami-area police chase ended in the grisly death of four innocent passengers after the driver of the SUV being pursued by cops sped the wrong way on I-95 and crashed into a minivan.
The pursuit of a black Chevy Suburban driven by an unidentified driver began just before 1:30 a.m. Wednesday when an officer noticed “some sort of activity,” WPLG reported. While being followed, the driver was observed tossing a weapon from his car, then after a few hundred feet, he entered the highway, according to Opa-locka Assistant City Manager David Chiverton.
Once the driver entered the highway in the wrong direction, police ended their pursuit.
The driver then struck a minivan where all four people inside were killed. One of the bodies was ejected from the vehicle, Chiverton said, while two of the bodies in the vehicle were too mangled to move, and had to be put onto a flatbed truck with the vehicle and transported to the medical examiner. Authorities were able to transport the fourth victim separately, he said.
“The other vehicle was just broken to pieces,” Chiverton told ABC News. “It was just a horrific scene today.”
The identity of those killed in the crash have not yet been released.
Chiverton said that the engine of the driver’s SUV was ejected, and the battery and frame of the vehicle were badly mangled.
“For the whole engine to get ejected and the frame is unconscionable,” he said.
The driver survived the accident with two broken legs and was admitted to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Charges against him are still pending, and he is cooperating with the investigation. The weapon he threw from his car was recovered by police, authorities said.
“Let me just say that I’ve been doing this for about 25 years and this is one of the worst accidents that I have seen,” Joe Sanchez with the Florida Highway Patrol said.
The section of I-95 where the accident occurred was closed for several hours overnight, and reopened just before 9 a.m.
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