Van driver leads police on terrifying chase

Jul 24 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal

A DRIVER carrying three children under five led police on a terrifying motorway pursuit before trying to ram a patrol car.

He drove the wrong way down an A1 slip road and around a roundabout before crashing to a halt.

The driver fled the scene, leaving police stunned to discover a female front-seat passenger holding an 18-month-old baby in her arms.

In the rear were two more children aged two and five, unsecured by seat belts, as well as a man and a woman in their 20s.

Police last night said they were shocked at the actions of the driver, adding that the consequences of any accident would have been horrendous.

The van first attracted the attention of police when officers in an unmarked car reported it being driven along the A690 at Carrville, Durham, near the Belmont park-and-ride site.

As police began following the Transit, it turned left on to the motorway at junction 62 and headed correctly on to the southbound road via the entry slip road.

But as it reached the main carriageway, the driver did a U-turn and headed back up the slip road – going in the wrong direction.

A short time later the vehicle 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 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.

The drama happened just yards from the scene of a fatal smash last week when motorist William Forrest was killed when 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.

Police following the Transit eventually saw it career on to a patch of grassland and come to a stop in some trees.

The driver then jumped out of the van and ran away.

Officers chased after him and found a man hiding in bushes nearby, just after 10.30pm on Tuesday.

A Durham Police spokesman said traffic police were shocked when they saw the three children in the car.

He added: “There could easily have been an accident and the consequences would have been horrendous. It was a shocking incident.”

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 had minor damage as a result of colliding with the trees and was taken to a local garage.

There could easily have been an accident and the consequences would have been horrendous