A high-speed chase came to a crashing halt in Houston Wednesday afternoon, when a fugitive darted down the wrong way of a freeway on-ramp and slammed head-on into a vehicle carrying a mother and her baby.
The chase started around 1:45 p.m. when law officers tried to pull the suspect over to question him about a domestic assault case. The driver took off on the Beltway, sped along Interstate 45, then back to the Beltway and several highways in between.
After nearly two hours, the chase finally ended when the suspect headed the wrong way on a 59 entrance ramp and crashed into an oncoming vehicle.
"We couldn't swerve away. He ran dead on into us," said Diana McShan, a passenger whose 8-month-old baby daughter was also in the car.
McShan said they'd been listening to the chase on the radio and saw the helicopters over 59 so she knew it was close. She just didn't know how close. McShan and her baby weren't hurt, but the driver was trapped inside the car for several minutes. Fire crews got her out and she was taken to an area hospital.
Police handcuffed the suspect and took him into custody.
During the pursuit, the suspect darted between cars, but didn't appear to hit any other vehicle until the very end. At one point early in the chase, police lost the car which blended in with traffic at a normal rate of speed.
When they caught up with him again, the driver sped off at speeds up to 90 miles an hour which continued until the chase ended.