High speed chase

ends with fiery crash,

killing driver and 

injuring passenger

SNEADS, FL – A 40-year-old Camilla, GA man who was fleeing from a Chattahoochee Police Officer died Thursday night after he lost control of his car, which began overturning and ejected him before bursting into flames.

The driver – who was traveling with one passenger, identified as a 32-year-old Camilla, GA man – fled from a patrol car after an attempt to pull him over for speeding  around 9:30 p.m. on US Hwy. 90.  The driver raced away from the patrol car and headed up Old  Spanish Trail in Sneads, according to report from the Florida Highway Patrol.

“After discarding a large amount of methamphetamines, along with a variety of other illicit drugs, the driver fled the stop at a high rate of speed traveling into Jackson County and eventually Sneads,” according to a report from the Sneads Police Department.  A Sneads Officer witnessed the vehicle traveling at an estimated 130 mph eastbound past McDaniel’s Piggly Wiggly, with Chattahoochee Officers in pursuit.

On the west end of Sneads the vehicle took a side street and traversed onto Old Spanish Trail headed back eastbound. Speeds on the 2-lane street are estimated to have exceeded 100 miles per hour as the driver narrowly avoided striking a pedestrian, according to the police dept.

“When Old Spanish Trail ended, the driver continued eastbound striking a large supply of 10” PVC pipes staged for a construction project. The vehicle then struck a raised concrete manhole encasement causing it to go airborne and burst into flames. The vehicle quickly became fully engulfed as it rested on its roof. The passenger was extricated by First Responders,” according to the news release.

The person believed to be the driver was ejected a distance of approximately 125 feet from the vehicle. Life-saving measures were attempted but he was pronounced dead at the scene. The passenger was taken by AirHeart to a hospital in Tallahassee to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.