SUV crashes into North County home after driver flees traffic stop
Mitch McCoy, Jeff Bernthal, and Joey Schneider
5 hours ago
FERGUSON, Mo. – An attempted traffic stop ended with the suspect’s car crashing into an SUV, which flew into a home in Ferguson, interrupting a child’s birthday celebration.
FOX 2 crews were in North County looking for an unrelated story and saw it all unfold, including the moment the suspect was taken into custody.
Investigators tell FOX 2 that a Calverton Park police officer stopped the driver of a Cadillac along North Florissant Street. Police said the Cadillac attempted to take off when it collided with the SUV, and upon impact, the vehicle crashed directly into the house. No one was home at that time.
First responders arrived within minutes of the accident to assist the officer behind the traffic stop. The suspect, who was avoiding the traffic stop, appeared to have blood on his face.
Lydia Hughes, the driver of the SUV, spoke to FOX 2 immediately after the encounter about what she remembers.
“I was coming down Florissant Road, driving to pick up some cake for my daughter for her birthday,” she said. “It was a car that the police had flagged down, and as I was coming, I think the car tried to escape from the police, and it sped up and made a U-turn. As I was getting out, he tried to make a U-turn, and he hit me hard, which made me turn left. I tried to hit the brakes, but I couldn’t “I stopped and ran into the house.”
Hughes says she’s lucky to be alive. “It happened so fast. He didn’t register what happened,” she said.
Another adult passenger in the SUV was taken to the hospital via ambulance with what appeared to be minor injuries. Hughes also went to the hospital for precautionary reasons and said she had to get out of the car carefully.
“I had to climb over the passenger side of the car and jump over bushes just in case,” she said. “The car was on fire.”
Police said the officer was in this area due to school zone patrols. The driver drove off when the officer got out of the car. Due to safety concerns for other drivers and pedestrians, police did not consider a pursuit.
The crew went up to the front room of the house. It was damaged enough that the family later returned and was told they could not stay in the house.
A neighbor, who requested to remain anonymous, said she offered assistance to the victims of the accident. This neighbor feels lucky that no one lost their life.
“It could have been me,” she said. “I could have died by now.”
The name of the man driving the Cadillac has not been released, and it is not clear what charges he may face. He had not been charged as of Friday evening.
