Car chases, bus wrecks, and carjackings

Yesterday morning's bus ride was pretty eventful. I was riding the bus and we were about to get onto the on ramp to the HOV lane and found that it was blocked by another metro bus pinning a green pickup truck up against the cement wall. That was pretty crazy in and of itself. We circled around to get on the regular lane, there was a lot of traffic so we were waiting not far from the HOV on ramp when a guy from metro bus came up to our bus and said that they were going to put some of the passengers from the other bus on our bus.

After they got on someone from my bus asked a woman who was on the other bus what had happened and she said after they got into the accident the driver of the truck escaped from the window of the truck and tried to hijack another car by trying to open the car door and banging on the window. When he was unsuccessful with that (the doors were locked) he was able to take someone else's car. She said that he looked young and very scared. He got onto the GW parkway and went to Reagan National Airport where they were finally able to catch him after he got into an accident. She said it happened at like 8:10 am.

Well, this morning I was checking the news on the internet to see if anyone reported about it and I found this article that said this accident was just part of a longer car chase.

When I told Albert he asked me why I didn't take a picture, but I didn't think about it at the time. Here's a picture of it from the traffic camera.

Suspected carjacker nabbed

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A 25-year-old, unlicensed Maryland man is in police custody after stealing two trucks and leading police on a wild chase during the height of Thursday's morning rush hour. That chase went through Arlington and Alexandria and shut down an Interstate 395 High Occupancy Vehicle ramp after the suspect crashed into a Metro bus and police cruiser.

The incident started at I-395 at Edsall Road when Virginia State troopers were looking for HOV violators, according to Arlington County Det. Crystal Nosal.

Troopers saw a green truck driven by the suspect start down the ramp. When the driver saw troopers, he then backed up the ramp but couldn't go very far because of traffic.

When troopers approached him, he admitted he didn't have a license.

That's when the suspect hopped back in the green truck and took off down the HOV lanes. Early reports indicated he was going the wrong way, but police say there was no wrong-way chase.

The chase continued until the suspect sideswiped Metrobus No. 7E on the I-395 ramp at Shirlington. The bus was headed to the Pentagon. The bus driver and 23 passengers were not hurt, according to Metro spokeswoman Angela Gates.

The suspect also struck a police cruiser.

Nosal says as one trooper attended to the injuries of the other, the suspect bailed out of the green truck.

He then tried to carjack another vehicle, but the woman behind the wheel fought him off. Police say the suspect then carjacked a white Chevy Silverado. That pickup belonged to Parkfairfax, a condominium community in northwest Alexandria.

The suspect took off and headed for the George Washington Parkway, where he crossed the median.

Police nabbed the suspect after he crashed the truck into a retaining wall at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The investigation briefly closed the airport's upper departure level of Terminal C. Traffic is now moving smoothly at the airport.

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