Caught on video: Officer hurls spike strips during car chase
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PORTLAND, Ore. - The driver of a car speeding through Southeast Portland was taken to a hospital after a police officer hurled spike strips as the car roared by.
A violent crash soon ended the high-speed pursuit early Friday morning. Part of the chase was caught on video.
Police said the chase began at about 1:20 a.m. near SE 115th and Bush Street when officers spotted a 2000 Cadillac DeVille driving at a high rate of speed on Bush Street and attempted to stop the car when it ran a stop sign.
As the chase neared SE 82nd Avenue and Holgate Boulevard, a police officer can be seen on video hurling spike strips just as the car speeds by him. Police cars with sirens sounding follow close behind.
Police said the spike strips were effective in deflating the car's tires.
Six blocks later, near SE 77th and Holgate, the driver, identified as 35-year-old Richard Millican, lost control, went over a curb and crashed into a van parked in a driveway. No one was in the van. Neighbors estimated the car was going 50 mph when it crashed.
"It wasn't but a couple of seconds later I heard a huge crunch," Harold Tracy said. "I could see the car buried up there," he said of the crash scene.
Neighbors said that had the van not been parked where it was, the speeding car could have plowed into an occupied home.
The vehicle ended up in the yard of the home, just feet from large glass windows where residents watched police and medical personnel take the driver away on a stretcher and remove the mangled Cadillac.
Police said Millican was taken to hospital for injuries suffered in the crash but did not say what condition he was in.
A search of the car resulted in the discovery of methamphetamine inside the vehicle, police said.
Millican was issued citations for attempt to elude in a vehicle, driving while suspended, reckless driving, criminal mischief and distribution and possession of methamphetamine, police said in an email.
Perfect timing!
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 @Yeswecan2012Â
I stopped reading when you said the office is supposed to be behind cover of his vehicle...which is incorrect.
Just so you know.
The reason why some spike strips aren't set up with ropes to drag them across the road when the targeted car approaches, is because that requires more time to set.
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Throwing the spike strip at the spot where the car will drive over, less than a moment before it will pass through that spot, is the most effective way to puncture the car's tires. And they don't immediately cause a blowout, either.
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The spikes create openings that rapidly deflate the tire in a controlled manner - but that doesn't do much when the roads are wet! :D With flat tires and a wet road, you may as well be driving on an iced-over Lake Erie with summer tires at 70 MPH.
nice shot, officer; goal lamp lights up
Suspects involved in this chase have been upgraded to DOA status....'no one will miss them anyway...' bodies will be dumped in a dumpster somewhere...
When I saw the headline I pictured a cop puking out spike strips... But alas its simply a bad title. By now I imagine just about everyone has seen a video of the cops deploying spike strips. Why is this the focus of the title?
@SeattleJoe At least they didn't write "Police endangers an innocent life using spike strips"
 @Vince  @SeattleJoe Who was the innocent life in question?