Man arrested after Durham police pursuit with children in car
A DRIVER of a Transit van with three children under five inside led police on a terrifying motorway pursuit, driving the wrong way along a motorway slip-road and around a roundabout.
He even tried to ram a police car just yards from the scene of a fatal smash last week when motorist William Forrest, 52, was killed on the motorway at Bowburn, Durham, after his Peugeot 306 was hit head-on by a stolen Mitsubishi pick-up truck which crossed the central reservation as it attempted to evade police.
When it eventually came to a halt on Tuesday night and the driver fled the scene, police were amazed to find a woman front seat passenger holding an 18-month-old baby.
In the rear were two more children "unsecured" by seat belts, aged two and five, as well as a man and a woman in their twenties.
The van first attracted the attention of police soon after 10.30pm on Tuesday when officers in an unmarked car reported it being driven along the A690 at Carrville, Durham, near the Belmont park-and-ride site.
The van then turned left onto the motorway at junction 62 and headed correctly onto the southbound carriageway via the entry slip road.
But for some reason when the vehicle got to the bottom of the slip road the driver executed a u-turn and headed back up towards the roundabout.
A short time later it was seen heading along the southbound carriageway of the A1(M), its rear lights apparently out of action. Its route of travel was passed on to police by an off-duty Northumbria officer who happened to be in the area.
Durham officers followed the van to junction 61 at Bowburn, the junction with the A177. The van then came off the motorway and turned right at the top of the exit slip road, heading in the wrong direction round the roundabout.
It then attempted to ram a BMW police car which had been following, but narrowly missed it, before heading along the A177 towards Bowburn services.
It was then driven onto a grassed area before coming to a halt in adjoining trees.
The driver fled the scene but a few minutes later after a short pursuit on foot police arrested a man found hiding in some nearby bushes.
The man arrested, aged 34, from West Cornforth, near Ferryhill, County Durham, was taken to Newton Aycliffe police station for questioning on suspicion of dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.
None of the passengers in the van were injured. The van sustained minor damage as a result of colliding with the trees and was taken to a local garage.
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