PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Vancouver man was arrested after ignoring several traffic rules and attempting to escape a police chase on Friday night which resulted in a crash, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities say the driver, identified as 26-year-old Kostyantyn Kray, was booked into the Clark County Jail on a charge of attempting to elude a police vehicle, which is a Class C felony in Washington.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office said it started when a deputy tried to stop an SUV with no license plates after the car ran a red light at the intersection of NE St. Johns Road and NE 88th Street just before 9 p.m.
The SUV then attempted to escape the deputy by speeding through another red light, authorities said.
The deputy stopped the pursuit, following Washington State law, but it wasn’t long before the deputy saw a cloud of dust fill the air, according to authorities.
The SUV allegedly had attempted to drive between two moving vehicles and hit a pickup truck, sheering the driver-side wheels off of the SUV and pushing the truck through a median, across the road, and into a utility pole.
Kray, the driver of the SUV, was taken into custody, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s office, and was then taken to a local hospital, where he was medically cleared and then taken to the Clark County Jail.
A passenger in the SUV told deputies that they heard that the police had been defunded and were short-staffed so they wouldn’t be pursued for a traffic stop and that they believed Kray wanted to test this for himself, authorities said.
There were no reported injuries as a result of the crash.