SAN DIEGO — After a miles-long chase, both northbound and southbound lanes of Interstate 5 near Carmel Valley were closed on Monday. This caused what officials called a “traffic nightmare” for drivers.
A deputy from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department tried to pull over a Toyota Corolla that was driving recklessly in Imperial Beach, which is where the chase started, according to Sgt. Ray Scheidnes of the California Highway Patrol.
It went through a few South Bay streets until it got to I-5, where the CHP was going to take over. According to Scheidnes, the state police picked up the chase on the freeway close to downtown.
The CHP kept following the driver as they went north. As soon as the Corolla got to the interchange between I-5 and I-805 a spike strip was put on it, which sank the tires.
Scheidnes said that the car kept going, though, so the CHP used a pit maneuver, which is when a police car hits the side of a vehicle on purpose during a chase to make it spin out of control and stop.
Around noon, this move brought the Corolla to a stop just south of the interchange with State Route 56 from I-5. Then, both lines of traffic lanes were shut down out of safety while police tried to get in touch with the driver.
Scheidnes said the driver was “definitely under the influence,” and he or she wouldn’t get out of the car when it stopped. The CHP used “various techniques,” such as gas, to safely approach the Corolla, make sure the driver wasn’t carrying a weapon, and arrest him.
After getting out of the car, the driver was put in an ambulance and taken to the hospital. It’s not clear what kind of damage the driver had that needed medical attention.
Around 1 p.m., more than an hour after the chase stopped, southbound lanes were opened up again through the area. Caltrans says that the lanes going north were reopened about 30 minutes later.
Traffic was backed up for miles in both directions because of the long shutdown, from Solana Beach in the north to where I-5 and I-805 meet in the south.
Scheidnes told them, “It’s a nightmare.” “This made traffic quite bad, and it will continue to be bad on all freeways all day and into the evening, since all of them seem to connect to I-5.”