A police chase through Detroit ends in a fatal accident with one person dead and two others injured

DETROIT (WXYZ) - One person is dead and two others injured after a police chase ended in a three vehicle crash along the I-75 service drive in Detroit.

“It was close.  I mean I just got lucky that’s all,” said Robert Poff.  He came within inches of getting hit by a police chase.

“They were doing like 90 miles an hour,” said Poff.  “It was so fast it scared me.”

“I was just like 'Man, don’t get hit.'  But I saw he was all right,” said Poff’s friend.

Poff had just started crossing over the northbound service drive at I-75 and 8 Mile Road when a Lincoln and Michigan State Trooper vehicle came out of nowhere.

The Lincoln ran a red light but refused to stop when the trooper tried to pull him over.  When the trooper ran the license plate it had been reported stolen out of Detroit three days ago.  The man in the Lincoln refused to stop for the trooper.

During pursuit, the Lincoln smashed into a pick-up truck driving in front of it. 

The two people in the vehicle were transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Both of the men in the truck were in their 40s - one from Oak Park and one from Detroit.  They were not involved in the chase and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The car and truck rolled several times along the service drive smashing into the fence barrier and ripping out several feet of the fencing.  The fence stopped them from rolling down the embankment of the freeway.

“You could just hear it.  It looked like a big ball of dust,” said Poff.

The state trooper involved in the accident did not suffer any physical injuries.