A police chase that lasted about 30 miles ended when a trooper deployed road spikes to stop a Dickinson man's vehicle early Sunday morning.
Lt. Rod Banyai with the Dickinson Police Department said the ordeal began when police allegedly found 25-year-old Jeremy Robert Jahraus exceeding the speed limit on Third Avenue West in Dickinson. He said Jahraus was also swerving and when an officer tried to pull him over, Jahraus sped off out of town, exceeding 100 mph.
Capt. Tony Huck with the North Dakota Highway Patrol said Jahraus was driving erratically.
"This guy was an obvious hazard," Huck said. "The assumption was that he was under the influence. You could see that his driving was impaired."
Huck said Jahraus continued north on Highway 22, but he said Jahraus eventually slowed down.
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"I don't think it ever got over 70 miles an hour when our trooper was following him," Huck said, adding he was traveling slower than that at times. "Our officer was able to get ahead of him a couple of miles and then he pulled over and deployed his road spikes."
Huck said Jahraus pulled over less than a mile after driving over the spike strip. He added along with the Highway Patrol, officers from the Dickinson and Killdeer Police Departments as well as from the Stark and Dunn County Sheriff's Departments assisted during incident.
"Once his vehicle was disabled with the flat tires, then there wasn't any incident or problems taking him into custody," Huck said, adding the only damage done to Jahraus's vehicle was flattened tires.
Banyai said Jahraus was arrested for drunken driving, possession of marijuana, fleeing and eluding an officer and speeding. He was taken to the Southwest Multi County Correction Center in Dickinson, Banyai said.
Huck said it's been about two years since the Highway Patrol has had to use road spikes in this area.
"Once in a while you're not able to deploy them because you're not in the right location, but this time it worked OK because he was driving so slow after awhile," Huck said, adding the spikes can't be used in heavy traffic.
"In my opinion, it's one of the safest ways to bring a pursuit to a halt," Huck said. "It actually puts tubes inside the vehicle so it's a slow release of air. It's not a blowout. It creates a slow release of air so the tires go down gradually and that way they don't lose control as easily."
