A police pursuit that started in Pontiac went on for 40 miles Monday afternoon before the vehicle crashed into a business in Streator. Three people in the vehicle, the driver and two passengers, were seriously injured.
“Pontiac police had pursued a beige Mercury from that city that eluded them (and headed) towards Streator. Livingston County Sheriff’s (Police) spotted the vehicle and they also lost sight of this vehicle inside of Streator. … A short time after losing sight of the vehicle, it was spotted again by LCSD deputies,” the Streator Police Department posted on its Facebook page.
“The vehicle, in fleeing from them, went airborne before striking a building in the 1700 block of North Bloomington; the incident was captured on video cameras inside of that premise.”
According to Asst. Chief Brad Baird of the Pontiac Police Department, an officer spotted a suspicious vehicle on the north end of town, and when the officer attempted to stop the vehicle, the vehicle fled northbound on Route 23.
Baird said the officer pursued the vehicle until it entered a residential area in Streator, which is where the officer terminated the pursuit.
The pursuit started at 12:27 p.m. in Pontiac, Baird said, but after the officer terminated the pursuit in Streator, information was passed along to other policing agencies, including the Livingston County Sheriff’s Police.
“Pontiac ended up terminating the pursuit near Streator, but my deputies were in the area and happened to be in town, in Streator, and came across the vehicle and attempted to stop it and identify the driver, said Bob Turner, Livingston County Sheriff’s Police chief deputy. “That’s when they took off, and within two blocks that’s when they ran into the building, there at Curly’s.”
The vehicle crashed into Curly’s Furniture Store, 1726 N. Bloomington St., at 3:23 p.m.
“Basically, they just fled. They made it to Chicago Street and Bloomington and that was it,” Sgt. Troy Dodge of Streator Police said.
According to the Streator Police Facebook page, there were three occupants in the car — a male driver and two females. All were seriously injured. All three were taken by helicopter to Peoria.
Names of the driver and occupants have not been released.
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: