The officers had a tire burst and the driver was unable to compensate for the loss of traction
- A car owner in Massachusetts used his car’s GPS tracker to locate his stolen Lexus IS and assisted police in the recovery.
- After a police pursuit, the stolen Lexus lost control on the highway and crashed, causing significant damage.
- Fortunately, despite the high-speed chase and subsequent accident, no one was injured.
A man’s Monday morning in Peabody, Massachusetts, started with a jolt – his Lexus IS was missing. He quickly contacted police and used his car’s GPS tracker to locate it. Unfortunately, the chase ended with the stolen Lexus in ruins, as documented by news crews who captured footage of the car losing control on the highway and nearly causing a serious accident.
Technology integrated into cars could help reduce thefts or at least allow authorities to recover vehicles. That’s certainly what this owner was hoping for when he contacted the Massachusetts State Police. His ability to see the car on the GPS was undoubtedly a comfort at the time.
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“It went everywhere,” the owner said. “They went to Burger King. I saw receipts in the car. They went to Burger King, McDonald’s. They had a good time.
“We followed it. I would give out the nearest cross streets [to police]” the man’s brother told WCVB News. “We went back and forth, and then they finally caught up with the air wing.”
When officers caught up with them, they used a spike strip to burst at least one of the Lexus’ tires. While authorities did not provide specific details as to when this occurred in relation to the end of the chase, it appears the car continued driving for some time after hitting the spike strip.
A video from before the accident shows damage to the rear quarter panel on the passenger side, as if a tire had disintegrated while driving. Furthermore, the accident itself seems to indicate that the same tire was damaged. The driver was in pursuit with a police helicopter when a simple lane change caused the rear of the vehicle to swerve.
The driver was unable to correct the slide, left the road and crashed into a tree. What was impressive was that a truck that was also traveling on the highway seemed to be so alert that it avoided the slipping Lexus by just centimeters. MSP did not disclose who the three suspects were, but confirmed that all three escaped without major injuries and that one was a juvenile.
“For the record, we have a strict pursuit policy that governs when and how we pursue suspicious vehicles,” an MSP spokesperson told WCVB.
“In addition, a commissioned officer of the force in which the pursuit is occurring authorizes and assumes real-time command and control of each pursuit and remains in constant radio communication with the pursuing Soldiers and continuously monitors factors such as speed, traffic volume and the density of the surrounding area, to decide whether to continue or end the pursuit. We are convinced of the severity and correctness of our prosecution policy,” added the state police spokesman.
Why the officers didn’t just try to steal the car in the middle of the night we may never know. The owner probably wishes he had done just that. “I worked so hard for this. “I’ve only had it for six or seven months,” said the car’s owner. “I’ve invested a lot of money and time and then it just falls apart before my eyes. It kind of sucks… Of course I was upset, but I really couldn’t do anything. It was out of my control.”
Fortunately and most importantly, no one was injured in the accident.