“This must be a dangerous person”, Bart thought when he saw a motorist being chased from his home on Thursday night by about ten police cars. A short time later, the chased car crashed into the Rithsestraat in Breda and caught fire.
“I woke up around two o’clock in the morning,” Bart said Friday morning. “Then I heard a lot of police cars driving this way, with sirens blaring. I also heard a very speeding car. I think it had a speed of at least 150 kilometers per hour. I jumped out of my bed, looked out the window and saw the flashing lights coming this way from afar.”
Bart was already afraid that things would go wrong: “I thought: there is a bend. The driver probably didn’t notice that! I quickly walked to the other side of the house. There I looked out the window again and then heard I crashed. Then the chased car caught fire.”
Driver’s license recovered
A 23-year-old man from Etten-Leur was in the car. He was checked by paramedics, arrested and questioned.
A police officer had gone after the motorist around a quarter past twelve, because he knew that the driver’s license had been recovered. This driver is also often drunk behind the wheel.
Difficulty keeping up with man
When the officer saw the luxury car driving away from the Ginnekenmarkt, he went after it and gave the driver a stop sign. He also turned on the blue lights of his nondescript police car. But instead of stopping, the man from Etten-Leur accelerated.
He took off at high speed. Then the chase ensued. It took place at such high speeds that the police officer had difficulty keeping up with the man from Etten-Leur.
At one point, the officer saw a passenger get out of the car. The driver then drove off at high speed. It eventually went wrong on the Rithsestraat. The car swerved, hit a fence and crashed into a tree. The officer had to make an emergency stop. It came to a stop with the inconspicuous police car against a mountain of sand.
Dazed
The driver of the car turned out to be the man the officer had expected. The motorist was dazed and was removed from the luxury car. That’s when the car caught fire. The police car was also damaged in the fire.
“It was a really crazy chase,” local resident Bart recalls. “At first I thought: maybe this is a criminal. Otherwise you don’t go after someone with so many cars, it was really a big occupation.”
Exploded tires
Bart saw the luxury car go up in flames from behind the window. “I also heard bangs, probably from exploded tires. The smoke from the fire was very thick and passed over my house. You could smell that air well in the bedroom.”
He then saw how the man from Etten-Leur was removed from the car by the police. “He was taken to an ambulance, because it also arrived, as well as a fire truck and a tow truck. It was a whole entourage. The man did not protest. He stumbled to the ambulance, where he got a check-up. Then I saw him, I thought: well, I need not be afraid of him.”
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