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CA Police Chase of Pot Car Ends in Fatal Crash

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #785)

A Nevada man died Monday afternoon after his marijuana-laden car crashed during a high speed police pursuit on Interstate 80 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The as yet unnamed man becomes the 13th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

According to KCRA TV, the California Highway Patrol began pursuing a BMW near Big Bend, and the chase lasted 20 minutes at speeds exceeding 100mph before the BMW driver lost control, his car went airborne, and containers and jars of marijuana went flying.

According to KCRA's reporter, Claire Doan, it was the transport of marijuana "which might have started this traffic nightmare on I-80."

In addition to the deceased driver of the BMW, two California Conservation Corps workers who were working on the side of the highway were also injured, with one of them suffering "major head injuries" and being transported by helicopter to a hospital in Sacramento.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

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