Driver Calls 911 as Police Pursue Him
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 2:08 pm
MARYVILLE, Tenn. - It may be right to call 9-1-1 to report someone's chasing you on the highway - but not if it's a sheriff's deputy in pursuit.
Kevin Richard Vowell, 31, of Maryville placed such a call to emergency dispatchers during a high speed chase on U.S. 411 early Sunday morning, Blount County sheriff's spokeswoman Marian O'Briant said.
The incident began when a deputy noticed Vowell driving erratically and signaled for him to stop. Vowell pulled over but then spun his pickup truck around and fled down the highway, with three patrol cars in pursuit.
Vowell then dialed 911 and reported he was being chased but would not stop until he got to Vonore.
"The dispatcher advised him to stop, telling him, 'You're only making it worse,"' O'Briant said.
Police said that after Vowell struck a mailbox and then rammed a cruiser. With a supervisor's permission, one deputy ended the chase by bumping the truck and sending it off the highway. Vowell was treated for minor injuries at the University of Tennessee Medical Center before he was taken to the Blount jail.
Vowell was charged with vehicular assault, drunken driving, felony reckless endangerment and felony evading arrest.
Kevin Richard Vowell, 31, of Maryville placed such a call to emergency dispatchers during a high speed chase on U.S. 411 early Sunday morning, Blount County sheriff's spokeswoman Marian O'Briant said.
The incident began when a deputy noticed Vowell driving erratically and signaled for him to stop. Vowell pulled over but then spun his pickup truck around and fled down the highway, with three patrol cars in pursuit.
Vowell then dialed 911 and reported he was being chased but would not stop until he got to Vonore.
"The dispatcher advised him to stop, telling him, 'You're only making it worse,"' O'Briant said.
Police said that after Vowell struck a mailbox and then rammed a cruiser. With a supervisor's permission, one deputy ended the chase by bumping the truck and sending it off the highway. Vowell was treated for minor injuries at the University of Tennessee Medical Center before he was taken to the Blount jail.
Vowell was charged with vehicular assault, drunken driving, felony reckless endangerment and felony evading arrest.
