This is the shocking moment a police car is rammed head-on by a truck driver in a terrifying smash in Rugby.
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00:00We were made aware over our police radio of a gentleman that was outstanding wanted on warrants
00:06and was believed to be in a stolen vehicle on clone plates.
00:09Yeah he's testing us. Yeah he's definitely testing us.
00:14There was information that this gentleman had previous history for failing to stop for police
00:19and also showed violence towards police. It was apparent very very quickly he was aware of our
00:24presence. He then accelerated a high speed away from us and a pursuit developed. The gentleman
00:29very very quickly entered into an estate, committed some very very quick irrational reckless moves,
00:36a sharp left which then took him onto like a grassed, what I call like a play area.
00:42Very very quickly we could see that he's gone past a young lady with a young child and a push chair
00:49at speeds around that 40 mile an hour. How he didn't hit that individual and the young child
00:55is beyond me. The longer the pursuit was going on the more tactical units would get into the
00:59area so we're kind of closing the nets so I think his desperation was getting worse.
01:04Okay standby he's lost on the bend he's gone off wrong side of the road. He's then turned,
01:10hit a tree and then reversed back and there was a moment where his vehicle was facing our vehicle.
01:17He was about 20 meters away. I can very clearly hear it and see it now where he's revving his
01:23engine really really loudly. That was that moment of what's he going to do now and then he just
01:28floored it and came towards us and rammed our vehicle head-on.
01:34Okay Alwyne road, Alwyne road, standby. Okay he's rammed us. No attempt to prepare myself for it.
01:41It's quite a significant hard impact and it jolted my body and my head backwards and forwards quite
01:46sort of suddenly. Yeah I didn't I didn't expect that to happen. Very very quickly my colleague
01:51was out the car. She's very quickly deployed her taser and tasered him but unfortunately it was
01:57ineffective and as I've got out I could see him run and I've ran after him in order to get a hold
02:03of him and detain him. When you're on the foot chase you don't, you're not, for me I wasn't aware
02:10of my injury or to what extent I was injured. My main focus was to apprehend this person who
02:17completed some very dangerous manoeuvres, was ill-intended using his vehicle as a weapon.
02:31It wasn't until after that had happened that I just started feeling immense pain in my neck
02:35and my shoulder area and realised that I'd hurt myself through the impact of the vehicle.
02:41Oh yeah I know he rammed his head on. Yeah just smacked my head. And then I was taken to hospital.
02:49I was informed that I'd torn a muscle in my upper right part of my neck and I've torn a muscle in
02:54my shoulder area. Yeah not nice. It's only three months since the incident occurred and I still
03:00have a lump on my neck area so I'm sort of carrying a visual scar of the incident of that day and I
03:08still get a little bit of pain in my neck, my shoulder area. It's not good.
03:15We're police officers. We go to incidents that normal members of public don't go to. We face
03:22towards the danger rather than away. What we don't expect is for a gentleman to use a vehicle that
03:28he's stolen then use that as a weapon. It's the first time I experienced that. Yeah I think it'll
03:33stick in my mind for a while. I've got a teenage son and daughter. I've got a fiancee. You know
03:40when you do come home and you've got an injury it does affect them. They go a bit quiet. They're
03:45like are you okay dad? And I think my worst fears are well what if I don't come home that night?
03:50What if I'm seriously injured in hospital or worse? Nine times out of ten the public are
03:56really positive. You know we get really positive feedback. I've been at a service station having
04:01a cup of coffee and a member of police come up and said thank you for your service. Thank you for
04:06a brilliant job that you do. That comes out of nowhere and that to me is just like fantastic.
04:11You can't get any better praise than that. It makes you think you know what I come to work.
04:16I do a hard job. I do long hours and it's worth it. We made a promise to the public that we will
04:21look after them and take these dangerous offenders off the street through whatever means and that's
04:26what I and my colleagues will continue to do.