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A 30-year-old Woodstock man is charged with several offenses after a pursuit Friday involving several police forces.
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Two cruisers were hit by a vehicle that first eluded police in Woodstock and then was later tracked by police through Oxford and Elgin counties before two people were arrested southeast of Belmont.
Woodstock police were the first force that tried to pull over the driver. Officers who responded at about 10 am to reports of a suspicious vehicle on Harford Street laid a spike belt to stop a fleeing vehicle. The driver’s vehicle struck a police cruiser while trying to avoid the spike belt and then fled the city, Woodstock police said.
At about 11:40 am, Middlesex OPP officers responded to a complaint of a suspicious vehicle near Lake Whittaker Conservation Area about five kilometers east of Belmont, police said.
Officers spotted the vehicle, but it sped off and traveled through Elgin and Middlesex counties, Middlesex OPP said.
At at 12:40 pm, the vehicle came to a sudden stop on Dorchester Road near Mapleton Line in Elgin County, causing an OPP cruiser to come in contact with it.
Officers from the OPP, St. Thomas police and Aylmer police arrested two people, who were taken by ambulance to hospital to be assessed, police said.
No officers were injured in the incident, police said.
Woodstock police said the man is charged with assaulting a police officer with a weapon, flight from a police officer, dangerous operation of a vehicle, using an unauthorized license plate, failing to stop after a crash and breaching a probation order.