Public Helps Prevent Another Head-On Collision in Eureka

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Members of the public played a key role when a vehicle pursued through Eureka ended without injuries in the early hours this morning as the California Highway Patrol gave chase to a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the road. Here is Paul Kraft, information officer with a CHP, speaking to KMAT's Lisa. [00:00:22] Speaker B: This morning, a little bit before 6am our dispatch center received calls of a wrong way driver in the in the southbound lanes from Fern Bridge. Received several more calls over the next few minutes. One of the Humboldt area CHP officers located that vehicle northbound on Broadway near Wabash and initiated a traffic stop at that location. Suspect fled from the scene at that point, driving northbound on Broadway through Eureka, continuing on Fifth Street. Pursuit continued through Eureka, back on to southbound 101. Sheriff's Department had set up at Palmer near Ferndale and there was a successful spike on the vehicle at the Palmer Overcross. Vehicle came to a stop just south of Palmer. Officers on scene conducted a felony stop on the vehicle and located a single occupant in the vehicle driver who was taken into custody at that point safely. [00:01:21] Speaker A: The driver, a 26 year old male from Washington, was taken to the Humboldt County Jail and booked on charges of evading law enforcement. Further charges may be forthcoming. [00:01:34] Speaker B: At this point, we don't believe that impairment was a factor, but there could have been other factors involved and we're looking into those. And whether it was mental health condition that maybe led to decisions that were made or not, those are things that are considered and the officer is following up on those types of things. When we do these investigations, according to. [00:01:59] Speaker A: Officer Kraft, people driving on the wrong side of the road occurs all too often. [00:02:05] Speaker B: It is unfortunate that we tend to get these calls more frequently than I would like to hear. It's not always certain that we catch up to the vehicles. Most often they tend to get off of the freeway or off of the road and are not located. In this instance. The callers continued to give us locations of where the driver was at that did allow for our officer to intercept him there on Broadway in Eureka and Wabash. [00:02:35] Speaker A: That was Officer Paul Kraft of the California Highway Patrol speaking to Lisa. Music this is Sigurd Bjorn reporting for kmat.