THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 11, 1996 TAG: 9603110038
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER\
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Four people were injured in a five-car collision Sunday at the intersection of Kempsville Road and Volvo Parkway after the driver of a stolen truck led police on a wild chase along some of the city's busiest roadways.
It was the latest in a series of police pursuits that have ended in accidents since 1994. At least two, including Sunday's chase, have resulted in serious injuries or fatalities involving innocent people.
Injured Sunday were a 30-year-old Chesapeake woman and her 10-year-old niece. They were in a 1992 Ford Taurus that was broadsided by the vehicle police were chasing, a 1995 GMC pickup truck.
Maria T. Rosasmartin of the 1300 block of Ivy Trail was airlifted to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where she was listed in serious condition in the trauma unit Sunday night. The niece, whose name was not released, was taken by air ambulance to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters. Her condition was unknown.
The driver of the truck, Rickey N. Nelms, 23, of the 100 block of Chesnut St. in Suffolk, was being treated at Sentara Norfolk General.
The unidentified driver of another car involved in the collision suffered minor back injuries. Two other cars were struck, but the occupants were unharmed.
Nelms has been charged with grand larceny auto, eluding a police officer, driving on a revoked operator's license and reckless driving, police said.
Elizabeth Jones, a spokeswoman for the Chesapeake Police Department, said the pursuit, spanning five to 10 miles, lasted about eight minutes.
Nelms, she said, ``exceeded the speed limit and drove recklessly, speeding and running stop signs and stop lights.''
Jones said two Chesapeake police cars were involved in chasing Nelms while other units were on alert nearby.
Although there was no indication that any policies had been violated, Jones said a review of the pursuit will be conducted.
``Any time there is a police pursuit,'' she said, ``we evaluate what our officers have done.''
Most of the chase took place on busy stretches of Battlefield Boulevard, but Nelms also sped through the residential neighborhoods of Kingsboro Square and Wimbleton before the collision, Jones said.
The chase began about 2:30 p.m. when two off-duty Virginia Beach Police Department officers saw Nelms and another man fighting in the parking lot of the Hardee's restaurant at the intersection of Great Bridge and Dominion boulevards.
The officers called to alert Chesapeake police and then followed Nelms as he jumped into the black truck and left the parking lot.
Jones said Chesapeake police spotted the truck about 2:40 p.m. near Chesapeake General Hospital on Battlefield Boulevard. The pursuit began, she said, when officers tried to pull over the truck and Nelms refused to stop.
Jones gave this account of the chase:
Nelms first drove north on Battlefield to Volvo Parkway. There he went behind the Lowe's Hardware store, down Thrasher Road and back to Battlefield. He drove through the Kingsboro and Wimbleton sections before speeding back to Battlefield and then to Lenore Trail and Gibson Drive. Nelms returned to Battlefield traveling south, made a U-turn, drove north to Volvo Parkway, then onto Greenbrier Parkway and finally to Kempsville Road, traveling north.
Rosasmartin was pulling out of a parking lot onto Volvo Parkway when Nelms ran the light at the intersection and hit her car broadside. The impact knocked Rosasmartin's car into three other cars that were stopped for a light in the southbound lanes of Kempsville Road.
Police pursuits remain controversial in South Hampton Roads. The most tragic of recent pursuits resulted in the deaths of a Richmond attorney and his Virginia Beach fiancee on Jan. 21, 1995.
William L. Rosbe, 50, and Teresa G. Timms, 40, were killed instantly when Rosbe's BMW was struck at the intersection of Duke Street and Brambleton Avenue by a van driven by Arnold O. Peterson.
A drunken Peterson had led police on a 15-mile chase that began in Virginia Beach. Peterson refused to stop for a Virginia Beach Police officer on International Parkway near Lynnhaven Mall. He was chased onto the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway and Interstate 264 into Norfolk.
Another pursuit in October resulted in injuries to a Suffolk woman. Her car collided with a vehicle driven by a Virginia Beach man who was being chased by police on Interstate 64 near the high-rise bridge.
There have been 16 police-pursuit deaths in Hampton Roads since 1980. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by BOBBY MATTHEWS/Tidewater Fire Photographers
Association
Two people were seriously hurt after a man driving a stolen truck
led police on a high-speed chase through Chesapeake that ended in a
five-car pileup.
Area Shown: Chesapeake chase and Crash
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC INJURIES HIGH SPEED CHASE CHESAPEAKE
POLICE DEPARTMENT by CNB