A truck driver is facing multiple felony charges after leading police on a high-speed chase with his wife and two young children in the cab.
The chase happened on Monday, October 29th at around 11:00 p.m. in Harris County, Texas.
According to the Houston Patch, 37-year-old Juan Manuel Rodriguez-Jimenez was traveling along Highway 290 in Cypress when an off-duty sheriff’s deputy noticed the rig drifting across several lanes of the highway. The off-duty officer then called the dispatcher who alerted other officers. The officers then attempted to pull the erratic tractor trailer over, but Jimenez kept on driving, ignoring their sirens and lights.
Jimenez sped his way through residential areas along Highway 6 near Little York at speeds of 80 miles an hour in an attempt to lose law enforcement, but officers followed him on State Highway 6, onto Highway 290 and into the Coles Crossing subdivision near Barker Cypress road where Jimenez jumped curbs and drove through yards trying to evade officers.
Jimenez then got back onto Barker Cypress Road, where police were able to puncture the front tires of the big rig with “stop sticks” but Jimenez kept going, swerving towards deputies and nearly colliding with their patrol vehicles.
After nearly an hour and 37 miles, the rig’s front bumper fell off and the rig came to a stop in the 30600 block of Interstate 10 west near Igloo Road in Walker County, where police discovered that Jimenez had been driving erratically while his wife and young children, 1 and 8-years-old, were in the cab, all with an “open, cold container of alcohol” in the cab with him, reported ABC 13 News.
Jimenez failed field sobriety tests and possessed an expired license at the time of his arrest. He is currently being held without bond in the Harris County Jail on charges of evading in a motor vehicle and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
