GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (Grand Haven Tribune) - A Muskegon-area man was injured when his vehicle struck a house following a chase with police in Grand Haven early Friday evening.
The car crashed into the side porch of a house at the northeast corner of Washington Avenue and Griffin Street at about 7:30 p.m.
The car rolled over, landed on its roof and caught fire. The fire was extinguished, but the driver, a 68-year-old Muskegon Heights resident, was pinned in the vehicle until police and firefighters were able to extricate him.
The east-side intersection was closed to motorists for about two hours while a police investigation was being completed.
The porch was demolished, but nobody inside the house was hurt.
Brita Pratt and her friends watched as police and firefighters worked for about a half-hour to extricate the man from his upside-down, smashed car. The man was alive, police said, and taken from the scene by ambulance.
Pratt said she and her friends were taking pictures on the Third Street Bridge when the same vehicle stopped and the driver stared at them.
“He was just looking at us,” Pratt said, noting that they were “creeped out.”
Pratt said a police car came around the curve and they waved him down and told the officer about the man in the car, so police stopped the vehicle. Moments later, after they left the scene, Pratt said they saw the car go flying by and police chasing it. Then they came upon the crash sceme on the other side of the city.
Grand Haven Public Safety Director Jeff Hawke said the suspect was stopped on Third Street near Harbor Island, and when he failed to produce a driver’s license, he sped away as the officer was standing at the window of the suspect’s car.
Police then pursued the suspect from Harbor Island south on Third Street, east on Jackson Street, and then south on Griffin Street until his car crashed into the house.
Homeowner Andrew Hammerle said he and his son were inside the house watching the NCAA basketball tournament when he decided instead to watch on a television that he had on the enclosed porch.
“I turned on the heater and went back inside,” Hammerle said. “I was getting ready to come back out (to the porch), and there was this crash and everything came in. There were police cars here immediately.”
With a choked voice, Hammerle said his wife usually sits out on the side porch.
“Thank God she was at a friend’s house,” he said. “It was a miracle.”
“The investigation revealed the suspect was using a stolen license plate and that alcohol and marijuana were factors in the crash,” Hawke said in a media release later Friday night. “Charges will be requested for fleeing and eluding police, operating while intoxicated, driving while license suspended, operating a vehicle without insurance, and possession of stolen property.”
The Muskegon Heights man was taken by ambulance to Hackley Hospital in Muskegon with serious injuries, Hawke said. The suspect’s name is being withheld pending his arraignment in court.
Grand Haven Township Fire/Rescue and North Ottawa Community Hospital paramedics assisted Grand Haven officers at the scene.
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