Driver takes off after high speed police pursuit leads to a crash at Fairview and W. 17th

While some people were making plans to see the new Star Wars movie, a man in his 20’s was leading police officers on a high-speed pursuit on a busy local street in Santa Ana, early on Friday morning, before crashing his car into one drive by a woman, who ended up at a hospital trauma center, according to the O.C. Register.

A CHP patrol officer saw a driver speeding on West Seventeenth Street, near the I-5 Freeway entrance, just past midnight, at 12:15 a.m., on Friday morning. The CHP officer tried to pull over the vehicle, which was described as a Nissan Altima.

The driver however sped off, westbound on West Seventeenth St., racing at speeds close to 100 mph and running through red lights. However after he sped through a red light at North Fairview Ave., he slammed into a car driven by an unidentified woman. She was hurt and ended up at the Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana.

The young man in the Nissan Altima ran away from his vehicle after the crash and the police were not able to locate him. However a male passenger was detained and that passenger told the police who the driver was.

The police have not released the name of the suspect and had not found him as of 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning.

This incident took place in Santa Ana’s Ward 3, which is represented by Council Member Angie Amezcua. The accident took place just north of the Santa Ana River Trail, southwest of Edna Park.