A police pursuit that began with a speeding stop attempt in Stuart, Florida, in the early hours of Tuesday, October 27, ended in a wrong-way, head-on crash on U.S. 1 that seriously injured two drivers — one of them a 15-year-old boy who, police say, was behind the wheel of the fleeing car, and the other a 26-year-old Port St. Lucie man who was driving the car that was hit. Neither driver has been named; the teenager is not being identified because he is a minor.

Source: USA TODAY Network / TCPalm via Pembroke Pines News

According to the Stuart Police Department, officers were performing traffic enforcement near U.S. 1 and Southwest St. Lucie Crescent at about 3:45 a.m. when they saw a northbound 2025 Audi traveling “at an extremely high rate of speed,” Lt. Brian Bossio, the department's spokesperson, said in a release. “An officer attempted to conduct a traffic stop, but the driver refused to stop and fled at a high rate of speed,” Bossio said.

Source: Treasure Coast Today (WPTV)

Bossio laid out the route in an email update on Wednesday, October 28: the Audi turned east onto Southwest Joan Jefferson Way, then north onto Northwest Dixie Highway and over the old Roosevelt Bridge, then west onto Northwest Wright Boulevard — and then north onto U.S. 1, traveling north in the southbound lanes from Wright Boulevard. “Because of the driver's extremely reckless actions and the immediate danger posed to innocent motorists, officers continued efforts to stop the vehicle and attempted to alert other motorists traveling on NW Federal Highway (U.S. 1),” Bossio stated.

The crash at Treasure Coast Square Mall

The Audi crashed into a southbound 2016 Toyota Corolla near the Treasure Coast Square Mall — at the mall's south entrance intersection, Treasure Coast Today reported — on the stretch of U.S. 1 also signed as Northwest Federal Highway. Both drivers were flown by helicopter to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce, the region's trauma centre.

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) described the teenage driver's injuries as non-incapacitating and the Port St. Lucie man's injuries as incapacitating; Treasure Coast Today, citing Stuart police, reported both drivers suffered serious injuries. Officers learned only after the crash that the fleeing driver was 15, police said. No further condition updates for either driver had been released in the reports available on Wednesday.

Bossio said there were no guns, drugs or contraband in the Audi — which was not reported stolen — or in the Toyota. Authorities had earlier said the pursuit involved both the Stuart Police Department and the Martin County Sheriff's Office.

The crash closed all southbound lanes of U.S. 1 in the area for roughly four hours at the start of the morning; the lanes reopened around 7:58 a.m. on Tuesday, police said. U.S. 1 is the main north–south surface artery through Stuart and Martin County, and the mall stretch is one of its busiest retail corridors.

Wrong-way driving is among the most dangerous behaviours on American highways because closing speeds double the force of a head-on impact, and pursuits that move into oncoming lanes are the scenario police pursuit policies are written around. In this case, police said in their own account that they kept trying to stop the car and to warn oncoming motorists precisely because the danger to innocent drivers had become immediate — that account, and the decision to continue the pursuit, will be part of what the department's investigation reviews.

What happens next

Both investigations — Stuart police into the incident, FHP into the crash — remain open. Police have not announced charges, a court date, or updated conditions for the two drivers. Anyone who witnessed the pursuit or the crash on U.S. 1 early Tuesday is part of the witness picture the two agencies are building; further details are expected through the Stuart Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol as their reports are completed.