Independent staff report

A local man who raced away from Port Orchard police only to subsequently careen down an embankment and crash into a derelict bus in December was arrested last week.

The 28-year-old suspect, who was arrested last Friday, was driving northbound on Bethel Avenue on Dec. 16 in a red Honda Accord when a police cruiser pulled up behind him. According to court charging documents, the man quickly turned off Bethel and headed north on Ramsey Road when he noticed the officer following him.

When the suspect refused to slow down and accelerated more, the officer turned on his lights and sped up trying to catch the vehicle, a police report states.

But the driver of the Accord was apparently in no mood to stop. He sped through a stop sign at the intersection of Ramsey and Blueberry roads, and was going up to 60 mph back on Bethel as he blew through a red light at Sedgwick Road.

The police officer ended his pursuit due to safety concerns as the Accord reached speeds of 100 mph near the 6700 block of Bethel.

But approximately 30 minutes later, the officer was dispatched back to the 6700 block of Bethel after Kitsap County sheriff’s deputies reported a vehicle had crashed through a guardrail, gone down an embankment and hit an old bus.

When the police officer arrived on the scene, he found the vehicle was the Honda he was chasing a short time earlier. The airbags had been deployed and the driver’s side door was open, but the driver could not be found.

The police officer ran the car’s license plate and confirmed that the registered owner was driving the vehicle when it sped away during the chase.

The suspect was recently arrested on a charge of attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle. He is being held in the Kitsap County Jail with bail set at $25,000.