Police chase ends with crash on I-40

Garner, N.C. — A police chase ended Wednesday morning with the driver of a stolen pickup truck crashing on eastbound Interstate 40, which temporarily shut down several lanes near Jones Sausage Road near Garner.

The crash happened after a man stole a white Service Experts truck from an employee's home on the 1300 block of Pender Street in Raleigh just before 7 a.m., authorities said.

Knightdale police officers spotted the truck some time later at a Walmart in the town and started chasing the truck. A Wake County deputy joined the pursuit when the truck got onto Interstate 440.

The driver lost control on I-40, clipped a tractor-trailer, hit a ditch in the median, flipped and was ejected from the truck, authorities said.

"I looked in the mirrors and I saw the blue lights, and I felt a bump in the side of the trailer, and then I looked and saw the ladders (on the pickup) flying and the truck spinning around," said Steve Jewell, who was driving the tractor-trailer

Emergency crews took the driver of the Service Experts truck to WakeMed for treatment of what authorities initially described as critical injuries. His name and condition were not released.

Charges are pending, authorities said.

Rob Eichas with Service Experts said the company has a GPS tracking system in the truck that updates every two minutes. He was able to direct police to where the driver was headed.

"I just know that it was run off the road, and our GPS just displayed an end, meaning the vehicle stopped and that it was no longer running," Eichas said.

The man was able to steal the truck after the employee went outside, started the truck to get it warm and went back inside his house, Eichas said.

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Latest Comments

The major issue here is that the "criminal" did not commit a fatality of himself. Sure would have saved a number of non-essential and ridiculous commentaries of hind-site, not to mention all of the tax dollars.

AlbertEinstein
February 3, 2010 7:41 p.m.

Manofjustice, you may be serious but you are SO hard to TAKE seriously. lol - I mean come on, 45 on the Interstate?

leo-nc
February 3, 2010 7:30 p.m.

"Its disgusting to a lot of people that the police chased this vehicle, but where is the disgust toward the thug that STOLE A TRUCK????????????????"---

Too many bleeding hearts out there. They don't care about the criminal. they just want to find a way to blame the cops. It's the way our society rolls these days. ...and we wonder why society is in such bad shape.

leo-nc
February 3, 2010 7:29 p.m.

Monday on 40 it took 15 minutes to make a 5 min drive because people had to stop and look at a LEO car with its lights on...would you call that rubbernecking or just ridiculous