Watch an SUV Fleeing Police Do a High-Speed Barrel Roll Off a Jeep's Tires
Dashboard camera video catches the moment a criminal evading police launches off Jeep Gladiator on San Diego freeway.
We’re all supposed to be aware and alert when were on the road, but there are some things that no one could ever imagine happening to them. For example, when a family was traveling home down a freeway through San Diego, they probably weren’t expecting a scofflaw fleeing police to use their modified Jeep Gladiator as an unintentional launch ramp to briefly go airborne.
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With San Diego Comic-Con underway, it sounds like a scene from a Chris Nolan Batman film, but this was as real as real can get. (And it seems to have occurred the week before Comic-Con opened, on July 15.) Instagram user "mason.converse" posted the harrowing dashcam video of the moment a black SUV—what looks to be a Nissan Murano—launches off the Gladiator’s exposed tires and lands on its side in the middle of traffic on the I-8 near Old Town San Diego.
According to NBC San Diego, local police began chasing the SUV after attempting to pull it over for expired registration at around 5:10 pm local time near Friars Road and Sea World Drive. We say “attempted” because the SUV didn’t stop and instead gunned it for the I-5 on-ramp, striking one vehicle in the process. From there the chase was on.
Meanwhile Kris Buckler was driving his Jeep Gladiator in a convoy with two other Gladitors going east-bound on the I-8 heading back to his their home in Utah. Buckler was in the middle and the group was communicating via CB radio. "I heard my partner behind be yell 'high speed chase!'," said Buckler. "I didn't have time to even locate a vehicle in my mirros before we were struck." The black SUV attempted to thread the needle between Buckler's Gladiator and some adjacent Honda Civics to get away from the police. The Nissan caught the Jeep's rear tire and immediately gets launched skyward in a way reminiscent of a Kia's unintentional flight after hitting a loose truck tire last year); those wide-offset wheels appear to hold up after the impact, and largely shielded the Gladiator from significant body damage. Put another way, those tires may have saved Buckler's life and his passengers that Jeep, though the truck's casual shrugging off of the impact suggests that not only did the occupants survive, but the truck did, too. "When we pulled over, I was surprised to see there was very little body damage," said Buckler. "It ripped both my plastic fenders off and scuffed the bottom hinge of the front passenger door, but no dents or scratches. Buckler did confirm that there was damage to the front and rear axles however. Post-impact, you can even see the truck is fully drivable and is able to pull off the road to safety—impressive, Jeep.
The wayward SUV came to a rest on its passenger side after kissing that Civic's roof. According to San Diego police, there was a passenger in the SUV when it crashed, and that person did sustain injuries, but it is unclear what the extent of those injuries are. The driver fled on foot. No one in the Jeep Gladiator was hurt and no other cars were impacted by the crash.
Again, there is no way to anticipate a criminal using your car for a ramp in the midst of a high-speed chase (though in the video you can hear the occupants in the car filming the whole episode appear to realize in real time that there was a police chase bearing down on them), but if nothing else use this as a reminder to never take your driving awareness for granted the next time you’re on the road.
Andrew Beckford’s passion for cars started as a middle schooler when his friend Richie explained how an internal combustion engine works. He was bitten by the bug and the rest, as they say, is history. He dug deep into the tuner scene and eventually wrote for Turbo Magazine, Import Tuner, Super Street. He covered car shows, feature builds, and reviewed racing games for those magazines in addition to covering motorsports including Formula Drift, Indy Car, and F1 for his personal blog. Eventually Beckford joined MotorTrend to cover the daily automotive news beat. Besides being a gearhead, Beckford has been a gamer since the ’80s and is a huge fan of the arcade racing games of the ’90s like Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, and Ridge Racer. Beckford’s a movie buff as well, especially comic book films from DC and Marvel. When car culture crosses over with gaming and entertainment, rest assured Beckford is aware of it. In addition to serving as a consultant on a “triple A” racing titles, he’s reviewed major racing games such as Forza Motorsport, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, F1, and more. He’s also interviewed blockbuster directors including Steven Caple Jr. (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and Neill Blomkamp (Gran Turismo). His biggest profile to date was with Robert Downey Jr. on his love affair with cars and his show Downey’s Dream Cars on MAX. Beckford’s profile of Downey Jr. was the first print cover story written by an African American in MotorTrend’s history. Along with KJ Jones, Andrew Beckford also heads up MotorTrend’s celebration of Black History Month by spotlighting diverse voices in the automotive industry and motorsports. Beckford’s first car was a 1982 Nissan Stanza affectionately named “Stanley” by his late mother.
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