Two people who fled from Moraine police in a stolen vehicle were taken to the hospital after a crash Friday afternoon.
Around 1:30 p.m., Moraine police spotted a stolen vehicle out of Dayton and attempted to stop it, according to Moraine Police Chief Craig Richardson. Less than three seconds later, the car ran a red light and entered the intersection of North Springboro Pike, and collided with another vehicle, which then struck a third vehicle.
The two people inside the stolen car were taken to an area hospital with serious injuries.
No other injuries were reported.
The intersection of State Route 741 and South Dixie Drive reopened just after 5:30 p.m.
News Center 7′s Mike Campbell reports it all started when a driver running from police ran a red light and crashed into a van, knocked down a power pole, and slide into another vehicle.
The people in the reported stolen car were the only ones hurt, which was a surprise to one of the drivers that got hit while just starting to drive through a green light.
“Shaken up like anybody would be when you have an accident on there,” said Leonard Davis. “The main people injured are the people that caused the problem.”
Davis told Campbell there was nothing he could have done.
He spotted a police cruiser with lights on and did not move even after he got the green light.
That’s when a driver heading south on Springboro (State Route 741), ran the red light and crashed into a van that had accelerated into the intersection legally.
The spinning and grinding did not end until a large power and wires were on the ground and three vehicles had been damaged.
Police tell us an officer tried to stop a blue sedan after realizing it had been reported stolen out of Dayton.
Craig Richardson, Chief of Moraine Police, told Campbell his officer turned on his lights and three seconds later, had just gotten the words, “pursuit” out of his mouth, when the crash happened.
The man and woman in the reported stolen car went to the hospital with serious injuries.
The innocent drivers were not hurt.
Richardson told Campbell Friday this an ongoing epidemic of people not wanting to stop for police.
“There seems to be an epidemic of people not wanting to stop for police,” he said. “There are policies written to protect the motoring public as best as possible but it always comes down to the suspect, the violator, not stopping, creating the danger and stuff like this happens.”
Campbell asked Jones what he thought as they saw everything unfolding.
“It’s like, how bad am I going to get hit?” he responded. “And then the thing too, I saw the pole going down and I thought, oh, the pole’s going to hit the truck and that would have been more of a mess.”
Richardson told Campbell his accident reconstruction team did finish its work at the scene.
The driver of the car that created these problems will likely face several charges for this crash and maybe charges from Dayton Police for being in a stolen car.
News Center will continue updating this story as we learn more.