Just after 11:00 pm Saturday night, December 7th, a Sheriff’s Deputy observed a dark-colored Subaru traveling over the speed limit northbound on U.S. Hwy. 101 near Museum Road south of Harbor, Or. that had also failed to dim its lights to oncoming traffic.
The Deputy turned around, activated his emergency lights and siren to stop the vehicle and noticed that the vehicle had accelerated to a high rate of speed. The Deputy notified Dispatch of the start of pursuit as he tried to catch up to the speeding vehicle and estimated that it had accelerated to over a hundred miles per hour into Harbor when he lost sight of it.
Another Sheriff’s Deputy observed the vehicle traveling at a very high rate of speed as it passed him near Court Street in Harbor. The fleeing vehicle tried to turn right onto South Bank Chetco Road and lost control, hitting a curb which caused the vehicle to roll a few times.
The driver, thirty-year-old Jacob Hansen of Brookings was transported to Curry General Hospital and after being medically cleared, was arrested and transported to the Curry County Jail.
The Brookings Fire Department and Cal Ore Life Flight responded to the scene. Two female passengers, twenty-one-year-old Fallon Melsha and twenty-year-old Jordan Alkrie, both of Brookings were transported to Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City for injuries they received during the crash but were later released from the hospital the same evening. A male passenger, twenty-four-year-old Christopher Phillips of Brookings complained of pain but left the scene in a taxi.
Jacob Hansen reportedly admitted to Deputies that the reason he tried to get away was that he had been drinking and that his Oregon driver’s license was suspended. Thirty-year-old Jacob Hansen was arrested and lodged in Curry County Jail on the charges of Reckless Driving, Attempt to Elude, Reckless Endangering x 3 and DUII.
The Oregon State Police responded to assist in the investigation and all information was sent to the District Attorney for prosecution.
