Suspect tries, fails to flee arrest by driving vehicle into TN Highway Patrol car

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Tennessee Highway Patrol reports that one of its cruisers was hit by a drug-impaired driver as it attempted to flee from the troopers trying to pull him over.

62-year-old David W. Beach of Knoxville is charged with a DUI and felony evading.

It happened Dec. 7, after the troopers attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a reckless driver on I-40 in Knox County. Troopers saw the vehicle swerve off the left shoulder multiple times, eventually coming to a full stop in the median. As Troopers approached, the vehicle pulled out from the median and drove toward a patrol vehicle, striking the front of it. That Trooper used his patrol vehicle to “disable the suspect’s vehicle.”

Troopers found Beach in the vehicle drifting in and out of consciousness and kept him alert until he was taken to a hospital. Beach’s condition was later determined to be drug-induced.

No injuries occurred during this encounter, according to THP.