Driver Hits CHP Motorcycle : Chase: Woman evading pursuit by lawmen smashes into patrol vehicle and a tree, but no one was seriously hurt.

A 19-year-old woman who said her child needed medical attention led officers on a wild chase Monday from the Saddleback Valley to Seal Beach, where her van smashed into a California Highway Patrol motorcycle and a tree, then burst into flames.

Miraculously, no one was seriously injured, officers said.

The woman was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run driving and evasion of arrest. Neither her husband nor the two children in her van appeared to be injured, said CHP Officer Lauren Dummer.

The motorcycle officer, who along with his cycle was thrown against a tree, was sent home with only scrapes and bruises, Dummer said.

The chase began soon after 5 p.m., when someone reported a hit-and-run accident on Ortega Highway east of San Juan Capistrano in which a van struck an unidentified motorcyclist, who was not seriously injured.

A CHP officer spotted the van heading north on Interstate 5 near El Toro and pulled it over, Dummer said. Inside he saw Martha Rosette Monge, 19, in the driver’s seat and her husband, Jorge Serrano Monge, 20, in the passenger seat holding the couple’s 1 1/2-year-old son Jorge Jr. Seven-year-old Freddy Monge was also inside.

The couple began explaining that they’d left the accident because one of the children seemed to be choking and needed medical help. But when the officer, noticing boxes in the van, asked what was in them, “she punched it and just took off,” Dummer said.

The officer followed onto the San Diego Freeway, and the chase, mostly in the car-pool lane, reached 90 m.p.h., Dummer said. Two motorcycle officers joined the pursuit in Westminster.

As traffic began to slow near the San Gabriel River Freeway, the van swerved right and skidded out of control, Dummer said. One of the motorcycle officers, Fred Hartman, swung far onto the shoulder to avoid the van but was struck. He and the motorcycle were sent flying against a tree, Dummer said.

The van then rammed a tree head-on and began burning. The Monges and their sons ran from the van before it was engulfed in flames, Dummer said.

“The children looked perfectly fine,” she said.

Martha Monge had some cuts on her forehead and was treated at UCI Medical Center in Orange before being booked into county jail, Dummer said. Hartman was treated at a nearby hospital and sent home, she said.

And what was in the boxes?

“Nothing,” said Dummer. “Just personal articles. She just panicked evidently.”