State Troopers force fleeing vehicle off the road

A Whigham man is accused of running through a traffic checkpoint in Decatur County and leading Georgia Troopers on a chase into Whigham that ended just shy of a home on Jowers Road where multiple emergency vehicles and crews were working a fire call Monday evening. It was a PIT maneuver (Precision Immobilization Technique) by the pursuing trooper that forced the fleeing 2000 Ford Crown Victoria off the road.
“It’s a a good thing the troopers did ‘PIT’ him when they did. If he had come over the top of that hill at the speed he was going, he would have crashed into firemen, EMTs, deputy sheriff’s, city police, bystanders. There would have been nowhere for him to go and he couldn’t have stopped in time and he would have crashed into someone,” says Sgt. First Class Scott Woodell, commander of the Thomasville Post of the Georgia State Patrol.
The chase had started around 7:30 p.m., Monday, on Old Whigham Road on the East side of Bainbridge where troopers were conducting a traffic check point, according to Sgt. First Class Marc Godby, commander of the Georgia State Patrol Post in Colquitt. The car rushed through the checkpoint refusing to stop, and Godby’s troopers chased the car into Grady County where the road’s name changes to Jowers Road.
Woodell investigated the wreck that followed the PIT maneuver, which involves a trooper using his or her bumper to force a vehicle he or she is chasing off the road. Woodell says the Crown Victoria went down an embankment and was damaged by some shrub trees.
At that point, the driver, 24-year-old Brian Clark of Whigham, allegedly fled the crash scene, but was apprehended after a brief foot chase.
Clark and his passenger, a 23-year-old Cairo man, were taken to Grady General Hospital by EMS, where they were treated and released to the Grady County jail, troopers say.
Clark was driving with a revoked license, according to Woodell, and the passenger had warrants for his arrest. Charges against the pair related to Monday night’s chase had not been released by presstime.
The house fire Grady County volunteer firefighters, Whigham Police officers, EMS and others were working was taking place at 230 Jowers Road, according to firefighter Richard Phillips. A water heater had started the fire in a laundry room, and luckily, damage was minimal.