File photo.
Police are looking for a suspect after an RCMP officer was forced to swerve sharply to avoid a head-on collision in East Sooke on Sunday.
At around 12 a.m. on Jan. 21, two Sooke RCMP officers in two separate police cars were called to Gillespie Road near Roche Cove.
An officer in one of the police cars had to swerve to avoid a vehicle that was out-of-control and skidding toward the officer in his lane.
The officer had been following the first police car by several hundred metres.
Police said the vehicle that almost collided with the second police car went off the road into the ditch. The male driver took off on foot into a wooded area.
The Saanich Police Department sent out an officer and a dog. They searched for the suspect for over an hour but the man was not found.
Police said the vehicle was stolen from Langford and they believe the suspect panicked when he saw the first police car and accelerated. He then allegedly lost control of the vehicle and almost hit the second police car at a high speed.
“Due to the officer’s attentiveness and decisive manoeuvring, he avoided any injury and consequently was able to enjoy an hour-long pursuit of the suspect, as back up to the police dog unit,” Staff Sgt. Jeff McArthur said in a release.
Officers found three stolen licence plates in the vehicle. They also found personal items belonging to a Sooke man, who is considered a suspect. No names or descriptions have been released by police at this time.
Alexa Huffman
