PALO ALTO -- A chase in Schuylkill County Wednesday caused two police cars to crash.
"Kind of surprised that two police cars actually hit each other," J.J. Tire and Towing employee Dan Kievman said. "That's unusual."
State troopers said this crash happened as they were chasing Michael Flickinger, 42, of Port Carbon who they were trying to pull over for driving with a suspended license.
"There was fire police, there was fire engines, police cars, it looked like a war zone," Leroy Guldin of Palo Alto said. "The whole road was blocked down."
The crash happened at the corner of West Bacon and Howard Streets in Palo Alto. According to arrest papers, the chase began after a state trooper pulled over Flickinger near Schuylkill Haven. Troopers said the crash happened after the Palo Alto police officer tried to block the road so that the chase suspect couldn't get through.
"The bad guy got around him," Trooper David Beohm said. "When he was backing out of the way, the trooper car came around and hit the Palo Alto car, glanced off of it, and then went and hit a pole."
Neither officer was hurt in the crash. Flickinger was caught in Pottsville about 12 hours later. State police say the crash could have been avoided if the suspect would have stopped when he was pulled over.
"Take your lumps, whatever it may be," Trooper Beohm said. "Some people run for the silliest of reasons. Take your lumps and move on because you could be killed or you could hurt other people. I never understand why people take off when we turn lights and sirens on."
Flickinger faces nearly a 20 charges from the chase, including reckless and careless driving and fleeing to elude an officer.