COSTA MESA : Driver Arrested After Highway Chase

An Anaheim man driving a stolen car at more than 100 m.p.h. led police on a chase through commuter traffic on the San Diego Freeway on Tuesday, ending when he broadsided a car and tried to run, police said.

John Donald Sedlack, 29, of Anaheim was seen about 9:30 a.m. driving a Thunderbird that had been reported stolen in Corona, Lt. Jim Weuve said. When officers tried to stop him at Knott and Orangewood avenues, he fled, getting on and off the Garden Grove Freeway, police said.

With police cars and a police helicopter in pursuit, Sedlack then got on the southbound San Diego Freeway, Weuve said.

“It didn’t impact traffic as far as cars scurrying all over the road, but it startled a few people,” he said.

Sedlack got off at Beach Boulevard, went south briefly, turned around and went back on the freeway, heading south. At the Brookhurst Street exit, he took the side access road and clipped a car but did not stop, police said. After re-entering the freeway, he continued south and drove off at Fairview Road, where he broadsided a car.

Sedlack then got out, jumped over a fence, and ran into a residential back yard in Costa Mesa, where he was caught after a brief struggle with officers, Weuve said.

Police from three cities and the California Highway Patrol helped in the chase.

The driver of the car he broadsided and her 7-year-old grandson were treated for minor injuries at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach and released, police said.

Sedlack, held at the Orange County Jail, will be charged with felony evasion of arrest, felony hit and run, auto theft, possession of stolen property, and assault and battery of a police officer, Weuve said.