Man fleeing police crashes into power poles at intersection, takes off
Police are searching for a driver they say led officers on a chase through northwest Atlanta on Friday morning before crashing into two power poles and taking off on foot.
The man wrecked at the intersection of Northside Drive and Whitehall Street, totaling a white Dodge.
The pursuit began when the driver failed to maintain his lane on Central Avenue near Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, nearly striking a Capitol Police officer traveling in the same direction, according to the Georgia State Patrol.
The officer tried to stop the man, who accelerated down MLK before turning onto Pryor Street, Peachtree Street and then Whitehall Street before losing control and crashing into several fixed objects, the GSP said.
Whitehall Street blocked at Northside Dr. due to accident that took out two power poles & traffic lights. @ga_dps on scene handling incident. pic.twitter.com/j2BcZCZGZl
— Atlanta Fire Rescue (@ATLFireRescue) March 1, 2019
According to witnesses, the speeding car barreled into a power pole at the intersection before the driver got out and ran.
Car doing, what they say was, over 100mph slams into a power pole at Northside and White Hall. @FOX5Atlanta @AJC @cbs46 @wsbtv @ATLFireRescue pic.twitter.com/TFVtGgxjfz
— Thomas Swofford (@ImgAlleviation) March 1, 2019
Mark Perryman, who works at a nearby seafood restaurant, said he saw troopers chasing the man’s white Dodge.
“He went out of control and went through two light poles and flipped over,” Perryman told AJC.com. “He got out of the car and took off running, which surprised me a lot. He was running like an athlete.”
Perryman said the man took off down Northside Drive with two patrol cars in pursuit. Police said the man was still on the run Friday evening.
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John Spink is a multi-platform photojournalist with the breaking news team. He provides compelling photos, video and audio from breaking news events for the AJC and media partners WSB Channel 2 Action News & WSB Radio
