A 42-year-old driver who was “seeing red” failed to see the blue lights behind him while traveling in a reckless manner.

On February 20th at approximately 5:54 p.m. Deputy X.D. Bates was monitoring rush hour traffic in the area of Onville Road. While doing so he observed a Jeep traveling at such a high rate of speed it bounced in the air as it went over the bump in the roadway. Due to the extremely recklessly driving behavior, Deputy Bates activated his emergency equipment in an attempt to conduct a traffic stop. Instead of pulling over, the Jeep would use a turn lane in order to get around the vehicle in front of him and increased his speed, nearly losing control of his vehicle in the process.

As Deputy Bates gave chase onto Aquia Avenue, he noticed the Jeep was traveling approximately 60 MPH in the residential area. Deputy Bates would not continue the pursuit and instead calmly responded to the registered owner’s address. There he would locate not only the Jeep, but the suspect driver.

The suspect admitted to the reckless driving behavior observed. His excuse was that he was “seeing red” due to someone upsetting him while he was driving. Seeing red is not an excuse to ignore blue lights. The suspect was charged with eluding police, reckless driving, and reckless speed. He was served on permitted warrants.