A woman is in custody after leading police on a chase across Los Angeles in a stolen RV, damaging multiple vehicles, injuring at least three people, and causing injuries to two dogs.
The chase began at 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday evening, reports the Los Angeles Times, when police began following an RV for failing to yield. As the RV stormed through San Fernando Valley at speeds nearing 60 miles per hour, authorities learned that the vehicle was stolen from Simi Valley, California, raising the chase’s stakes further.
Police watched the RV collide with at least seven vehicles throughout the chase, on one occasion T-boning a black car crossing an intersection. ABC reports that the driver of that car suffered six broken ribs and a punctured lung, and was hospitalized by the accident. The driver of the RV continued on, trying to dodge police by taking a detour through a parking lot, but the vehicle swung wide as she exited the lot, colliding with a tree. This impact didn’t stop the vehicle, though it did tear apart its right front and strip the RV of its windshield.
With the windshield gone, news helicopters’ cameras zoomed in on the front of the vehicle, where they discovered the driver was restraining a scared dog trying to leap from the RV. The animal eventually escaped her grasp, diving from the moving RV, taking unknown, non-life-threatening injuries. Police reportedly recovered the pup and sent it to a veterinarian for care.
Video of the chase showed the driver eventually lost control at a left-hand turn, plowing wide and into the final vehicle damaged as part of the chase. This presumably disabled the RV as the woman reportedly attempted to flee the scene by climbing over a fence, where police tackled her. She was handcuffed and sent away in an ambulance, and according to ABC is expected to face charges including driving under the influence, felony evading, and felony hit-and-run.
As police arrested the stolen RV’s driver, they tended to a second dog discovered to have been onboard the vehicle. ABC reports the dog was leaving bloody paw prints as it tried to stay by the woman’s side, but animal control managed to restrain the dog and take it to a veterinarian for treatment.
