ALEXANDER COUNTY, N.C. — A high-speed chase late Tuesday afternoon in Alexander County ended with a crash sending two state troopers to a hospital with minor injuries.
According to the North Carolina Highway Patrol, the chase ended after the driver swerved and struck the front of a large truck on Old Mountain Road.
The driver, later identified as 41-year-old Herman Eugene Williams Jr., was eventually airlifted to the hospital with serious injuries.
Clayton Herman told Channel 9 that he was driving a tractor-trailer back from Virginia when his finance, Addie Smith, warned him about the crash.
“I called Clayton to tell him we saw a cop chase, and I didn’t know where he was. And he said ‘Oh my gosh.’ And right when he came above here I was on the phone and could hear the impact,” Smith said.
“Really, there wasn’t no reaction time. All you could do was brace for impact,” Herman said.
Highway patrol said the driver hit two patrol cars when officers tried to end the chase with a pit maneuver. They also said that during the chase, they could see the driver drinking a bottle of liquor.
“Super, super dangerous situation with what was going on. Not just the alcohol … he was wide open,” said Sgt. Daniel Hall.
An accident reconstruction spent hours collecting evidence from the scene.
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