Midnight police chase from Collegedale to Bradley County ends in fatal crash

Motorcycle crash tile
Motorcycle crash tile

A 57-year-old Ringgold, Ga., man is dead after he reportedly led police on a chase overnight from Collegedale to Bradley County.

According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, James Michael McAllister was riding a 2004 Honda VT1 motorcycle when a Collegedale Police Department officer clocked McAllister doing 80 in a 45 mph zone just after midnight and attempted to make a traffic stop when the motorcyclist sped away.

State trooper Curtis Walker wrote in his report that McAllister fled north on U.S. Highway 11 at about 12:15 a.m.

McAllister went continued a little over a mile into Bradley County where he turned onto Bancroft Road.

Reaching a right hand curve, Walker said McAllister went off the left side of the road, over a gravel driveway and into a ditch where the motorcycle hit a culvert.

McAllister, who was wearing a helmet, was later pronounced dead at Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga, Walker said.

No other vehicles were involved in the crash, the trooper said.

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