A suspected drunken driver in a Volkswagen van led police on a chase, resulting in three patrol vehicles being rammed before the suspect was arrested in Morgan Hill early Tuesday morning, according to authorities.
About 1 a.m. May 5, a California Highway Patrol officer saw the 1983 model van swerving “all over the roadway” on northbound U.S. 101 just south of Tennant Avenue, according to a CHP report. The officer attempted to make a traffic stop on the Volkswagen, but the driver failed to yield.
The officer followed the van, which continued to swerve across the freeway and almost hit other vehicles multiple times, according to authorities. The driver turned around at Bailey Avenue and continued southbound on U.S. 101, and in the process rammed the CHP vehicle in pursuit.
The Volkswagen exited in Morgan Hill, where the officer stopped him near the intersection of Butterfield Boulevard and Cochrane Road using a collision technique known as the Pursuit Intervention Technique, police said.
The Volkswagen was then boxed in by Morgan Hill police officers, and the driver rammed two of those patrol vehicles in another attempt to flee, according to the CHP report.
After he was surrounded, the driver was pepper sprayed by MHPD officers after reportedly resisting arrest, police said.
Police said the driver was taken into custody after being pepper sprayed.
The driver, Alex O. Larsen, 46 of Morgan Hill, was booked at Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, evading in a reckless manner, evading while driving the wrong way, resisting arrest, DUI and being under the influence of drugs.
The three police cars rammed during the pursuit suffered moderate damages, but no officers were injured in the incident, police said. Larsen was uninjured as well.
