2 arrested, 2 injured Tuesday when Yelm police pursuit ends in crash
Two people were arrested and two were injured Tuesday after a Yelm police pursuit ended in a crash involving two pickup trucks.
Just before 1:45 p.m., Yelm Police officers were dispatched to the Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell on the 1300 block of East Yelm Avenue, Assistant Chief Rob Carlson told The Olympian.
An employee reported that customers had passed a counterfeit $20 bill before driving off in a Chevy Silverado with a temporary license plate, Carlson said.
Officers found the pickup on Yelm Avenue, but the driver didn’t pull over when they tried to initiate a traffic stop, according to Carlson. That sparked a pursuit through back roads.
The driver of the pickup ultimately turned east onto State Route 507 from Old McKenna Road Southeast, Carlson said. A Yelm Police detective in an unmarked car had been unknowingly driving a couple cars ahead of the suspect, Carlson said, and turned on the vehicle’s lights.
The suspect then tried to pass the detective by driving into the westbound lane, according to Carlson, where he lost control of the truck and collided with another pickup that was traveling west near Vail Road Southeast.
There were three people in the cab of the truck, and a 59-year-old Seattle woman was riding in the truck bed, Carlson said.
The 28-year-old Tacoma man, who had been driving the truck, and a 33-year-old woman from Yelm, who had been riding in the cab’s middle seat, were transported to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia with injuries, Carlson said. The woman riding in the truck bed was not injured in the crash.
The driver was later booked into Thurston County jail on suspicion of eluding, three counts of reckless endangerment, and a warrant out of Yelm, according to Carlson.
The truck he had been driving was stolen, Carlson said, and a 48-year-old Renton man who had been riding in the cab was arrested on suspicion of possession of stolen property, after the other occupants reported he had originally driven the stolen truck to them.
A section of SR 507 between Walmart and Vail Road was closed for over an hour, Carlson said, and Washington State Patrol conducted the accident investigation.
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