A 47-year-old man was charged Tuesday in connection with an alcohol-fueled police chase through Orange County that ended with a crash that injured two people.
The chase started about 8 p.m. Saturday on the border of Villa Park and Orange, said Carrie Braun of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
When officers tried to make a traffic stop of the pickup truck driven by Jose Gelacio Carreravasquez, he refused to stop and led police on a chase that reached speeds “north of 100 mph,” Braun said.
The sheriff’s deputy that attempted to pull him over lost sight of the suspect and sent out a county-wide broadcast about the suspect vehicle, Braun said.
An officer from the Orange Police Department caught up with him, but a watch commander terminated the pursuit because of the high speeds just moments before the collision with a van, Braun said.
The crash occurred about 8:25 p.m. on Tustin Avenue at Santa Clara Avenue in Santa Ana, police said. The van was westbound on Santa Ana Avenue, police said.
Two people in the van were injured, including one person who was taken to an area hospital in critical condition, Braun said.
Carreravasquez was charged with two counts of evading police causing bodily injury, one count each of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, evading police-reckless driving, hit-and-run with injury and vandalism, all felonies.
Carreravasquez was also charged with single misdemeanor counts each of driving without a valid driver’s license, possession of drug paraphernalia, falsely representing self to an officer and resisting arrest.
Carreravasquez also faces sentencing enhancements for inflicting great bodily injury.