A man driving a stolen minivan evaded police for 15 miles on Long Island before the vehicle hit a pole and flipped onto a tree, Suffolk County officials said.
The driver of the white 1999 Ford minivan was allegedly drunk and wouldn’t stop for police after they spotted the vehicle with no lights on in Shirley around 12:20 a.m.
The minivan ended up traveling 15 miles west with police on his tail for part of the way before getting into a chain-reaction crash in a sleepy residential street in Farmingville, officials said.
The minivan hit a utility pole sometime before 12:30 a.m. and then flipped over onto a tree in a front yard at Horseblock Road and Liber Boulevard, pinning the driver inside, according to officials.
Emergency responders and firefighters were able to free the man from the wreckage. He was taken to Stony Brook University Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver was conscious and talking with investigators, who later said the vehicle was stolen.
Police said charges against the driver are pending and that the minivan has been impounded as evidence.
