A 'dangerous runaway' lorry driver was stopped by Police Interceptors who struck with a heavy-duty stinger. An Iveco HGV - suspected to be on false plates - was heading along the A1 when the driver was instructed to pull over near Cromwell.
After failing to stop, he drove dangerously close to pursuing officers. Even after his tyres were deflated by an expertly deployed police stinger device, he continued the pursuit for several minutes before abandoning the vehicle near Fernwood, Newark.
A suspect was found hiding in the undergrowth by a security guard from a nearby service station and arrested by officers on the night of November 2, police said. He later pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.
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Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on December 5, the 42-year-old was jailed for a total of 19 months and banned from driving for a further six years. He will have to take an extended test if he is ever to drive legally again.
The dramatic incident can be seen in tonight’s jam-packed episode of Police Interceptors. Police Constable Haddon Smith, of Nottinghamshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit, said: “This was an extremely dangerous display of driving that could very easily have resulted in serious injury to police officers or other road users.
“It goes without saying that an HGV being driven in this way poses a considerable risk to other road users, so it was imperative that we ended this pursuit quickly. After the lorry went over the stinger the tyres started to smoke, I could smell burning rubber and parts of tyre were being flung across the carriageway.
“The lorry was swerving across both lanes and towards the central reservation. The driver drove the wrong way round a roundabout and on the wrong side of the road before he crashed into a fence and ran from the lorry, but he was detained a short distance away. This really was an excellent team effort by all involved who worked together to bring the incident to a safe conclusion.”
Meanwhile, in tonight’s action-packed show, members of Nottinghamshire Police’s Road Crime Team embark on a Halloween hunt for a phantom 4x4 suspected to be involved in fuel thefts, the city knife crime team strikes again, making an arrest and seizin suspected Class A drugs after a proactive vehicle stop. All this and more will be featured on Channel 5 at 8pm.
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