The Shawville-Clarendon Fire Department was called to the scene of an accident on Highway 301 early in the morning on Oct. 27 to rescue a driver who was stuck in a vehicle that was overturned in a ditch on the eastern side of the road, a few kilometres outside of Portage du Fort.
Sûreté du Québec (SQ) spokesperson Sergeant Marc Tessier said the accident happened after officers at the MRC Pontiac SQ station received a call at 5:30 a.m. from the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) requesting assistance with a suspect vehicle that was connected to an assault file in Ottawa.
“The police officers who were positioned at the Route 301 bridge in Portage du Fort saw the vehicle,” Tessier said, explaining the police then turned on their flashing lights, at which point the driver accelerated past the police car, north on the 301.
“By the time the police got on the street, he lost control,” Tessier said. “So he fled, but not far. It was a very, very short pursuit.”
Tessier said the 26-year-old man driving the car lost control of his vehicle a few kilometres down the highway, was sent to hospital for treatment of minor injuries and then taken into custody by the OPS.
He said the driver could also face charges from the SQ for drug possession and flight from police.
The OPS confirmed that they worked in collaboration with the Ontario Provincial Police and the SQ to apprehend the suspect who fled Ottawa’s west end around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday after police responded to an altercation in which he was involved.
The Ottawa man has been charged with “dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, assault, assault with a weapon, flight from police officers, fraudulently obtaining food, uttering threats, possession of a weapon dangerous to public, attempt to commit a dual procedure offence and mischief,” according to a statement by Const. Cailey Walker of the OPS.
According to Walker, the individual appeared in court Monday morning.
