One injured in rollover following chase on 218

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

LEE COUNTY - One man was injured and sent to Henry County Health Center following a vehicle rollover that resulted from a high speed pursuit into Lee County.

The vehicle was heading southbound on Hwy 218 out of Henry County into Lee County when Lee County deputies deployed stop sticks just north of 190th Street.

At several points, the chase entered the northbound lane of 218 heading south when Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber decided to divert traffic out of the northbound lanes at Hwy 2 and stopped traffic already in the path to avoid a head-on collision.

The chase then resumed back in the southbound lanes where the stop sticks were laid out across the highway by Donnellson police. The suspect's vehicle, a white pickup truck, lost control at the sticks and rolled across the median coming to rest in the northbound lane facing north.

"There were multiple reports and complaints of erratic driving and after several attempts to get him to stop to see if he was impaired, the pursuit began in Henry County and entered Lee County," Weber said.

He said the pursuit was a high speed pursuit and the driver went from the southbound lanes to northbound lanes several times endangering vehicles.

"He swerved to miss the stop sticks and it was a good thing that we had stopped traffic coming north because he ended losing control and rolling into the northbound lane," Weber said.

The driver was the only person in the vehicle.

Rescue crews from Donnellson Fire & Rescue, Lee County Sheriff's Department, Iowa Motor Vehicle Enforcement, Lee County EMS, the Iowa State Patrol, Henry County Sheriff's Department, and Donnellson Police assisted at the scene.