WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - A high-speed chase up Interstate 91 that began in Claremont late Sunday evening ended when the teenage driver from Orford, New Hampshire ground to a halt and surrendered after both his front tires came off at the roundabout in White River Junction.
Claremont Police Officer Patrick Harden said he was heading back to his station shortly after 11 p.m. when he noticed an older model Dodge pickup truck driving through town without any lights on. Harden tried to initiate what he thought was going to be a routine stop when the pickup truck suddenly took off on him and headed for Vermont.
A pair of Claremont officers pursued the pickup, which had four people on board, across the Connecticut River and up Interstate 91.
“We suspected he was DUI because he was bouncing back and forth between lanes,” Harden noted.
At first Harden said speeds were “not too crazy” but as the pursuit continued north without any other traffic around it hit speeds of 85 to 90 mph, and the officers called ahead to police departments in Hartford and Lebanon to warn them what was coming.
Police from multiple towns converged on the scene.
A pair of Hartford officers headed up onto the northbound lanes of the interstate by the weigh station in their town and laid out two sets of spike strips, which achieved a “double successful spike hit,” deflating both front tires on the pickup as it sped past them a few minutes later with the Claremont officers still in pursuit.
The pickup proceeded down the off ramp at Exit 11 toward the roundabout in White River Junction, shedding both damaged front tires in the process, and then rolled to a stop on Sykes Mountain Avenue in front of the McDonalds, where the driver surrendered to the pack of police cruisers behind him.
Little was left of the two front tires after they ran over police spike strips.
His three passengers, at least one of whom was an adult, were questioned briefly by police but released from the scene shortly after midnight.“They were just along for the ride unfortunately, luckily no one was injured,” Officer Harden said.
Police said the teen—whom they had “not been familiar with whatsoever” before last night’s incident—was placed under arrest and transported to the Hartford police station, where they planned to have him conduct field sobriety tests while they made an effort to contact parents or a guardian for him due to his age.
