Police chase leaves two officers hurt "in £25,000 E-class Mercedes cars"

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

robert.saunders

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 11, 2004
Messages
3,744
Location
South Lincs / Hampshire
Car
W210 E300TD
Copy from Brighton Argus 2 Jul 08:

A car sprayed sparks behind it for four miles as a dramatic police chase ended with two officers in hospital.

The desperate driver refused to give up his bid to escape from police after the tyre of his Ford Mondeo burst during a pursuit.

And he was only brought to a halt after officers used three Sussex Police cars to box him in.

Two officers from the force's road policing unit, based at Chichester, suffered whiplash in collisions when the chase finally ended.

The drama began when a police patrol tried to pull over a green Ford Mondeo on the A259 in Littlehampton which had been driving erratically at 10.45am today.

The officers chased the Ford when the driver refused to stop. They watched as the car hit a kerb as the driver struggled to get away and one of his Ford's tyres disintegrated.

Instead of giving up, he made for Worthing with police in £25,000 E-class Mercedes cars behind.

For the next four miles the car trailed a shower of sparks as its driver tried to evade capture.

Eventually three police cars surrounded the Ford, one behind, one in front and one to the side, near the junction of Aldsworth Avenue and Bury Drive in Goring.

The four cars collided with each other as police boxed the suspect in and slowed down. All three police cars and the Ford were damaged.

Two police officers in one of the cars suffered whiplash.

They were taken to Worthing Hospital for treatment but were expected to be released later tonight.


I would like to say a few things:

  • I witnessed this chase (we're on a break staying at the folks who live nearby) as it unfolded off the A259, and saw the Mondeo being pursued by 3 traffic E-class
  • I was NOT the Ford Mondeo driver in question :devil:
  • It was very dramatic and I was impressed :D

http://www.theargus.co.uk/display.var.2376269.0.police_chase_leaves_two_officers_hurt.php
 
Last edited:
Basic E200 Kompressor is £27315 on the Merc Configurator.
 
Must admit, what I do find odd, is that there were 3x E class pursuing the Mondeo. We saw the chase somewhere between 1045 and 1100ish, and the car was only being followed by the 3x traffic cars, no other 'normal' police cars.

3x MB E class traffic cars in the right place at the right time, with a fail to stop only from a few minutes previous? They got from Chichester pretty quickly :devil:

Methinks there is more to this than a routine "driving erratically" stop :rolleyes:

And I don't know what engines these E class traffic motors have, but I'm convinced they're not the 'base' engine.

And Guido, so not my own Mondeo :D It was a MkII in burgundy ;)
 
Must admit, what I do find odd, is that there were 3x E class pursuing the Mondeo. We saw the chase somewhere between 1045 and 1100ish, and the car was only being followed by the 3x traffic cars, no other 'normal' police cars.

3x MB E class traffic cars in the right place at the right time, with a fail to stop only from a few minutes previous? They got from Chichester pretty quickly :devil:

Methinks there is more to this than a routine "driving erratically" stop :rolleyes:

And I don't know what engines these E class traffic motors have, but I'm convinced they're not the 'base' engine.

And Guido, so not my own Mondeo :D It was a MkII in burgundy ;)

What would have happened is that a local patrol picked it up, and the traffic units took over the pursuit.

This sounds textbook- Once the traffic units have taken over all local units are expected to pull away, and try to find Stinger locations. This is because of some ridiculous "Convoys" in the past when all the local units keep going.

A dog van generally stays with the pursuit if possible though.

Traffic units are, as advanced drivers, the only ones allowed to deploy TPAC too.
 
What would have happened is that a local patrol picked it up, and the traffic units took over the pursuit.

This sounds textbook- Once the traffic units have taken over all local units are expected to pull away, and try to find Stinger locations. This is because of some ridiculous "Convoys" in the past when all the local units keep going.

A dog van generally stays with the pursuit if possible though.

Traffic units are, as advanced drivers, the only ones allowed to deploy TPAC too.

Understand what you're saying, totally. However, the chase was supposed to have started literally minutes before we saw it. Chichester is some 30 minutes away!

To have 3 traffic cars available almost instantly I find remarkable. I would suggest they were more likely waiting for this chappie to appear....

"Driving erratically" my ass:D
 
Perhaps the Mondeo driver was a disqual driver and the traffic cars were sitting up around a location waiting for him to move - what would be wrong/unusual in that?
 
It will probably be E320cdi cars the police use. It was 530d BMW's up in grampian forces so I imagine a similar spec. They may have bought pre reg otr in bulk for a healthy discount.

Of course the article could be wrong at it was £35k E class.
 
I heard that Volvo gave the police a very healthy discount - hence so many V70's around. Perhaps MB did a similar deal?

David
 
I heard that Volvo gave the police a very healthy discount - hence so many V70's around. Perhaps MB did a similar deal?

David

it is good publicity, people often think it "it can take police use it will easily cope with what I'll do to it". Cars that fare well on the forces probably are mechanically robust.
 
Police cars are often "police spec" - so there'll be no ICE, cloth interior, manual seats etc. Take off a lot of trimmings and buy a large number of them and I bet the price drops a lot!

Have a look at some of the ex plod Volvos you see on auction sites, aftermarket radio is the usual giveaway!
 
it is good publicity, people often think it "it can take police use it will easily cope with what I'll do to it". Cars that fare well on the forces probably are mechanically robust.

Well funnily enough I heard that Mercedes weren't keen on this any more since it devalued the brand. I have heard rumblings in my force concerning the E-classes, hence why the traffic fleet is all now from BMW.

From my "sources" the rear suspension frequently couldn't take the weight of the kit combined with high speed driving. Which did lead to one incident involving suspension failure and a smashed tailgate at high speed... Apparently :devil:
 
Well funnily enough I heard that Mercedes weren't keen on this any more since it devalued the brand. I have heard rumblings in my force concerning the E-classes, hence why the traffic fleet is all now from BMW.

From my "sources" the rear suspension frequently couldn't take the weight of the kit combined with high speed driving. Which did lead to one incident involving suspension failure and a smashed tailgate at high speed... Apparently :devil:

Not so good, I thought MB was meant to be well made. One car manufactuer seems to be absent from police forces, VW group. Whats wrong with their cars?
 
I would guess their small golf size cars are more expensive than foucs etc. and they don't really do the fast large cars in the same way as MB, BMW and Volvo.

David
 
Audi A6 3.0Tdi is proper fast as is a new R36 Passat. Both would be ideal in wintery weather where RWD merc and BMW would be more treacherous. Supose they have scoobies and evo's for that, but they haven't got the luggage capacity of an A6/E/5
 
Well funnily enough I heard that Mercedes weren't keen on this any more since it devalued the brand. I have heard rumblings in my force concerning the E-classes, hence why the traffic fleet is all now from BMW.

From my "sources" the rear suspension frequently couldn't take the weight of the kit combined with high speed driving. Which did lead to one incident involving suspension failure and a smashed tailgate at high speed... Apparently :devil:
The value would be your journalistic licence.

Many Moon's ago Mercedes offered most forces excellent buy back contracts that included all servicing. The vehicles were bog standard 320CDI Avantgarde spec, although I believe there were also a few Elegance models.

Ford and I believe other manufacturers used to offer a full emergency vehicle pack but I have no idea if this is still offered.

Mercedes also offer a taxi pack and again I have no idea if they have an emergency vehicle trim but this will effect resale value and the cars I have mentioned were definitely standard 320CDI Avantgarde vehicles.

John

Me thinks Robert has chuckled about the Mondeo, Mercedes connection.

I wonder if the air con worked on the suspect's Ford?

John
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom