- April 24, 2024
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An 18-year-old led a local deputy on a 110-mph car chase, then flipped his car in front of the Bimini Bar on State Road 100 and fled on foot. Deputies using a search dog tracked the young man down an hour and 15 minutes later.
The incident happened at about 11:50 p.m. March 25, as a Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputy tried to stop a blue 2005 Pontiac that was speeding east on State Road 100 near County Road 302. The deputy turned on lights and siren, but the car sped up.
"My calibrated speedometer in my patrol vehicle indicated 110 mph," the deputy wrote in a report.
The deputy radioed in to dispatch so say he was calling off the traffic stop — the fleeing car was going dangerously fast — then turned off lights and siren.
The car continued speeding east, "too fast for the road conditions," according to the deputy's report, and the driver couldn't handle it as it entered the turn near the Bimini Bar and Deen Road.
The Pontiac hit the ditch on the east side of the road and flipped, landing on its roof. The deputy approached the crash, and could hear two two people speaking as they ran away from the car.
Deputies established a perimeter and brought out a search dog, Repo. The dog led deputies to the railroad tracks behind O'Reilly's Auto Parts, where they found 18-year-old Daytona Beach resident Rasheen Orien Smith.
The young man had some scratches and said his head hurt, but otherwise was not injured.
Deputies took him for evaluation at the hospital — where he told deputies that the car was his girlfriend's and that he'd tried to "pump the brakes" to slow down, but the car began swerving — and then to the county jail.
Smith is charged with one count of fleeing and eluding an officer and one count of leaving the scene of an accident with property damage.
The Pontiac appeared to be totaled, according to the deputy's report.
