An Oceanside RCMP officer conducting routine speed enforcement in a school zone Thursday afternoon in Qualicum Beach got more than he bargained for when a woman blew through the zone in her Mercedes and led the officer on a chase that ended in her arrest in the Chartwell subdivision.
The driver, a 53-year-old Coombs woman who did not have a driver’s license, was arrested for Dangerous Driving, Flight from Police and Impaired Driving.
At 2:45 p.m. Sept. 8, shortly before classes were to be dismissed, the officer was monitoring traffic at Arrowview Elementary School when he clocked a fast-approaching Mercedes sedan at “well over double the posted speed limit” of 30 kilometres per hour, RCMP reported in a written release.
The officer waved the driver over and she appeared to be stopping, but the car suddenly sped up and “recklessly” drove through the school zone, police said.
“This was a scary situation with terrible timing, as children were just 10 minutes from being released from school,” RCMP Cpl. Jesse Foreman said.
The officer jumped into his police vehicle, a GMC Yukon, and followed the car with lights and sirens activated in an effort to get close enough to read the license plate on the sedan. After she turned onto Chartwell Boulevard, a witness observed the police force the sedan to the side of the street in front of his house.
“They actually sideswiped each other,” said Don Rudman, who lives at 694 Chartwell Blvd. “He forced the driver’s door closed by ramming the police vehicle up against it.”
Rudman said he saw the officer approach the vehicle with weapon drawn before engaging the driver, the lone occupant of the Mercedes, in conversation through the rear passenger door.
He said the officer remained in place, instructing the driver not to move, until additional RCMP units responded to the scene. A short time later, he said, a woman was taken from the sedan.
“Then they put her in cuffs and took her in custody, Rudman said.
The Mercedes was towed from the scene. The driver was later released on a Promise to Appear in Nanaimo Provincial Court.
