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By Irene Wright
The Charlotte Observer
OCALA, Fla. — A driver accused of being under the influence led Florida deputies on a high-speed chase before crashing through a fence and hitting concrete, the sheriff’s office said.
He didn’t let that stop him, deputies said.
Deputies with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office saw a vehicle speed out of a Circle K parking lot near Ocala on Oct. 15 and drive “erratically,” they said in an Oct. 19 Facebook post.
The driver, 24, reached speeds of 100 miles per hour on the road, was driving in and out of his lane, and then ran a red light, deputies said.
Suspecting that the driver was under the influence, deputies said they tried to pull him over for a traffic stop, according to the post.
Instead, the driver took off, leading deputies on a high-speed chase where he tried to “make several evasive maneuvers” and drove on the other side of the road, deputies said.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office shared dashcam footage of the chase on Facebook.
At one point, the driver drove through the Greenway Trailhead parking lot, narrowly missing two people parked there, according to the post.
Eventually, one deputy deployed stop sticks, a row of spikes thrown down on the road to disable vehicles, and the spikes popped all four tires of the driver’s vehicle, deputies said.
The driver drove off the road, crashing through the fence of a home and hitting the concrete backing, stopping the vehicle, deputies said.
“This is where (the driver) used his head, but not how you should … he head-butted the passenger side window and came flying out like a dolphin,” deputies said in the post.
The driver took off on foot, but he was followed by a K-9 unit and was captured in the yard of a nearby home, the video showed.
The driver was taken to a hospital for treatment of a K-9 bite and then taken into custody, deputies said.
He was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, aggravated fleeing with injury or damage, and resisting without violence.
Ocala is about 80 miles northwest of Orlando.
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