Birmingham Mail
DUDLEY, England — A new police patrol car with just 400 miles on the clock was rammed by a truck driver who feared officers would discover he was banned from the roads.
In-car audio captured a tongue-in-cheek discussion between motorway officers saying they hoped disqualified driver Chad Harrison wouldn’t shunt their high-spec BMW X5 as they attempted to pull him over.
Just moments after Harrison stopped on a lane near the A449 in Stourbridge he did exactly that, reversing his flat-bed truck into the 4x4 twice and causing significant damage before speeding off. The 27-yearold’s attempt to disable the BMW failed as PCs Dal Nijjar and Gareth Phillips pursued him for almost 20 miles until he crashed through the gates of Hunts Mill Nature Reserve, off Coopers Bank Road in Dudley.
West Midlands Police’s force helicopter monitored Harrison’s movements as he ran into woodland — and they were able to direct officers on the ground to the spot where he was lying low in bushes. Harrison, from Dudley Road in Kingswinford, admitted dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, failing to stop for police and damaging eight other vehicles during the pursuit. He was jailed for 19 months and handed a seven-year driving ban.
Harrison caused £5,000 damage to the X5 plus thousands more to the other vehicles he later struck.