Skip to main content

High-speed chase passes through Batavia this morning

By Howard B. Owens

A small, dark-colored car raced down Main Street at more than 100 mph this morning a little before 8, but little information is available yet about the nature of the chase.

The vehicle was being pursued by a Sheriff's deputy, but the Sheriff's Office has little information to release at this time.

Sheriff Gary Maha answered an e-mail and said, "This is a female from Canada and she may have crashed the border early this morning. Still under investigation."

Lt. Eugene Jankowski said when he heard about the pursuit -- which may have started in the Town of Le Roy, just east of Stafford, at about 7:45 a.m. --  he tried to get spikes down on East Main Street at Summit and Liberty. But the car was past his location before he could get positioned.

"I couldn't get the strip out in time," Jankowski said. "It was going so fast that it was kicking up a cloud of salt dust. There was zero visibility behind it."

The car zoomed through downtown at least 100 mph, Jankowski said and turned right onto Route 98. City police participated in the pursuit up to the city limits.

A reader wrote in this morning:

It looked like a dark Neon going from Stafford into Batavia followed by a Genesee County Sheriff's vehicle just before 8 a.m. A Sheriff's S.U.V. was parked on the side of East Main Street waiting (it turned around and gave chase). The car was traveling around 80+ mph. Several other police vehicles gave chase from the Tim Horton (restaurant) area.

Jankowski estimated that it took the car less than 15 minutes to get from Le Roy to Albion.

There is no word yet on what happened to the car and driver from that point.

Jankowski said the police are conferring with the District Attorneys office on what, if any, charges to file against the driver. One consideration, Jankwoski said, is that the driver is going to face multiple charges in other jurisdictions and what and where to charge the driver will be a matter of efficiency.

UPDATE: A reader writes;

According to my scanner, Orleans County was unable to set spikes as well. She  made it to 104 where she flipped it.  She was in custody and will be facing  numerous charges, including failure to obey traffic signals, speeding, etc.  The various departments involved were Genesee County Sheriff, Orleans County Sheriff and Albion PD.

Laura Scarborough

15 minutes from Leroy to Albion! Holy cow... she's lucky she did not kill anyone. At that hour you've got people still a little tired getting their coffee etc, who would think someone would be flying thru the City, she's lucky no one pulled out in front of her. Howard, I know if you find out how this ended you will let us know.... yikes!

Dec 19, 2009, 12:31pm Permalink
Anthony Timberlake

Well, the thing about speed in them though is the fact that they become unstable, as she demonstrated by flipping her car over on 104 .

Dec 19, 2009, 3:25pm Permalink
Laura Russell Ricci

we were driving a donkey compared to the pure bred horses (BMW, etc) we tried to run with...and it wasn't a good ride that fast and not done that often either.

Dec 19, 2009, 8:00pm Permalink

Authentically Local