Chase Results in 5 Collisions; 3 Held

Three men in a stolen Mercedes-Benz sedan were arrested Thursday afternoon in Westminster after leading police through the city’s streets in a chase that reached 80 m.p.h. and resulted in at least five collisions, authorities said.

The chase began about 4:10 p.m. on the San Diego Freeway near the Golden West Street exit when a California Highway Patrol officer spotted the white vehicle crossing the double-yellow lines that border the car-pool lane, which was not open to traffic at the time.

The sedan left the freeway recklessly as the patrol car began following it, Westminster police said. A 10-minute chase ensued, winding through surface streets in Westminster and Huntington Beach, then around the Westminster Mall parking lot.

“Numerous times, (the driver) was on the wrong side of the street, heading right into oncoming traffic,” said CHP Officer A. Hill, who drove one of the chase cars. “There were cars skidding all over the place. It was crazy out there.”

Hill said the confusion caused by the suspect’s disregard of red lights and other traffic regulations caused at least five separate collisions as motorists sought unsuccessfully to get out of the way. No one was reported injured in the scrapes, but three of the accidents were serious enough to warrant police reports, Hill said.

The chase finally ended when the speeding car was blocked in at a dead end in a parking lot on Edwards Avenue, police said.