A 28-year-old man was taken into custody early Tuesday after authorities said he drove other motorists off the road and caused a chain-reaction crash that injured two state troopers.
Kelvin Treadwell, 28, was arrested in the area of I-20 and Martin Luther King Drive west of downtown Atlanta.
The charges against him are: driving on wrong side of roadway, passing in a no passing zone, reckless driving, too fast for conditions, failure to signal when turning or changing lanes, passing within 200 feet of oncoming traffic, driver to exercise due care, failure to obey traffic-control devices, failure to maintain lane, and improper use of central turn lane, said Tracy Watson, spokeswoman for the Georgia State Patrol.
The four-car crash happened about 3 a.m. Tuesday near Martin Luther King Jr. Drive as the troopers pursued the suspect, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Watson referred questions about the reason for the chase to the Atlanta police gang unit. APD did not immediately explain why Treadwell was being pursued.
GSP Sgt. Charles Chapeau told Channel 2 an undercover officer with the Atlanta police gang unit spotted a vehicle leaving a club and tried to keep up with it.
Once the suspect got on I-20, GSP units tried to catch up with the car when the suspect slowed down, leading to the chain-reaction crash.
One of the troopers suffered “an arm injury and facial bleeding,” Chapeau said, and was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, along with two other people who also sustained non-life threatening injuries. The second trooper had a minor leg injury but was not taken to the hospital.
The crash shut down eastbound lanes of I-20 for nearly two hours. The interstate reopened just after 5 a.m.
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