By: Chris Cheng
NOLANVILLE – Two women were hospitalized, Friday, after a high speed police chase took a dangerous turn in Nolanville.
A woman in a car collided with a mini-van along FM 439 and Sparta Loop.
Rescue Chief for the Nolanville Fire Department, Tony Wright, said both women are lucky to be alive.
"It was a major accident. If it would have been a head on, a direct head on, it possibly could have been fatal for both drivers," Wright said.
Police said the chase began at the Dollar General, just a few miles down the road, where a woman was allegedly shoplifting.
When two officers and the Police Chief, Gary Kent, tried to confront the woman they said she took off.
"I tried to stop the vehicle at that time she almost tried to hit me with the vehicle," Chief Kent said.
From there the chase hit speeds up to 95 miles per hour with the driver throwing objects out of her car, including a white powdery substance.
The pursuit continued until the woman in the car tried to pass a truck and collided with the van.
"It bent the frame there is absolutely no passenger seat left, the engine block was pushed into the cab of the car especially on the passenger side," Wright said.
Residents nearby said they were not surprised to see the scene unfold in their front yard.
"In the last 3 months, we've have 6 accidents and its become a weekly basis," adding "You know you never know what's going to come right through your front door," Steve Wasson said.
Wasson said the speed limit was recently lowered to try and prevent accidents like these.
He hopes others will learn from situations like these.
"I mean they need to slow it down, I mean our neighborhood we call this the deadman's curve because there have been several people killed over past few years," Wasson said.
Both women were transported to Scott & White Hospital in Temple.
The driver of the car sustained serious injuries to her head, a broken leg, and deep cut on the other leg.
Amazingly, the driver of the van only sustained minor injuries to her neck and back.
Rescue workers said she had lady luck on her side.
"When we were transporting her, we found out that she had just dropped off her children at daycare. If it would have been another ten minutes earlier they would have been in there and it would have ended up much worse," Wright said.
Police said the driver of the car is facing felony evading arrest and theft charges but additional charges are pending.
