Alabama and Florida authorities continued into Wednesday their search for a truck driver who bypassed an Interstate 10 weigh station and led a Florida Highway Patrol officer on a chase that carried into neighboring Baldwin County.
According to a press release issued by Lt. Eddie Elmore, FHP Commercial Vehicle Enforcement troopers were monitoring commercial vehicle traffic near I-10’s mile marker 3 from the median at the weigh station to ensure truckers were entering the station as required.
At approximately 10:05 a.m. troopers watched a white straight truck and black dump trailer (a tree service combination) bypass the weigh station.
A trooper activated his lights and siren in an attempt to get the driver to pull over, but the vehicle kept rolling. As the trooper attempted to pull up next to the truck to make sure the driver could see him, both truck and trooper crossed into Alabama.
The driver twice made a deliberate movement with the truck-trailer combination, causing the trailer to go into the trooper’s lane and just miss his patrol vehicle.
The unidentified driver, a white male, eventually lost control of his combination and crashed in the woods line. He reportedly jumped from the vehicle and fled on foot.
Alabama state troopers, Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office units and a team of Alabama Department of Corrections tracking dogs from the prison complex outside Atmore are reportedly involved in the manhunt.
More details will be published here as they become available.