Jason Lee HughesA handful of dashcam videos released Friday show a man leading East Ridge police on a high-speed chase through Chattanooga before crashing catastrophically at Volkswagen’s $1 billion Chattanooga plant.
At one point during the chase, the man swerved off the road and rammed the lead chase car. The officer exited his vehicle, gun drawn, and charged the man’s car.
Though the officer ran alongside the escaping SUV, his gun pointed at the driver’s window, the driver was narrowly able to get away, forcing police to hop back in their cruisers as the chase continued at high speed into Volkswagen’s $1 billion plant.
The driver, whom police identified as Jason Hughes, 35, weaved through the side streets surrounding the plant — which are not designed to be driven at highway speeds — as police converged from multiple directions. Suddenly, the driver took a turn too sharply and the car flipped in the air before coming to rest on its side in a shower of sparks and debris.
Police charged the car, guns drawn, and the video ends. The driver was ejected from the car, police said. After being released from a local hospital, he was booked into Hamilton County Jail.