Driver led wild chase through national park, slammed into car, cops say. He’s arrested
A 23-year-old was arrested after cops said he led a wild and reckless chase across a 48-mile stretch of mountainous highway through Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.
The chase ended in a crash that sent three people to a hospital, the park said on Facebook.
It started late afternoon on Sunday, September 8, when the driver “sped through the Grand Lake entrance” on the western side of the park, the park service said. Park rangers tried to pull him over, but “he failed to yield and continued to drive recklessly” on the iconic U.S. Highway 34 known as Trail Ridge Road.
The road crests an elevation of 12,183 feet above sea level and is the highest continuous paved road in the country.
He sped past other cars “over the 48-mile stretch of this mountain highway through the park,” officials said. Rangers backed off the chase and called in backup because of his “high rates of speed and recklessness.”
Estes Park Police and Larimer County Sheriff’s Office helped rangers set up strip sticks near the Beaver Meadows entrance to try to slow the speeding car, but the driver blew past the visitor’s center and slammed into another car with three people inside, officials said.
All three people inside the car were taken in an ambulance to Estes Park Health, “one with critical injuries,” officials said.
After the crash, the driver got out of the car and ran barefoot and shirtless in the direction of homes to the northeast along High Drive in the town of Estes Park, officials said. Law enforcement told residents to shelter in place as they started a manhunt.
Later Sunday night, officials determined the driver was “believed to be a suspect in a felony burglary case out of Grand County that remains under investigation,” officials said.
Officials arrested the driver suspected in the chase on Monday, September 9, officials said.
“Excellent news,” someone said in the comments. “I sure hope the people he hit make a full and speedy recovery.”
