11:20am Thursday 12th February 2009
By Charlotte McDonald, Robert Fisk and David Mills
A 21-YEAR-OLD man, thought to be from Eltham, is still critically ill after a high speed police chase ended in a crash in Beckenham.
The driver was being pursued by officers in an unmarked police car after he had failed to stop for them in the Lewisham part of Copers Cope Road.
He continued down the road and into The Avenue where his car collided with six parked vehicles at around 1.20am.
Police confirmed the man was alive but in a critical condtion after News Shopper contacted them at 5.15pm today (February 12).
One of the parked vehicles was hit so hard that the force of the collision caused it to push another one on to the pavement and into a brick wall which collapsed.
Firefighters spent around 40 minutes cutting the man out before he was taken to Lewisham Hospital.
He was unconscious and said to be suffering from serious head injuries.
Nearby resident Adam Walsh watched the incident from his bedroom window.
He said: "I was awoken at 1:30am by this god-almighty crash of screaming tyres, tearing metal and shattering glass.
"The noise was so loud and it made me jump and get out of bed and rush to the window unsure of what I would find but sure nonetheless that something serious had happened.
"Strewn across the street in front of my place were four absolutely wrecked cars.
"Ten seconds after I was confronted with this view five police cars screamed round the corner and screeched to a halt all sirens blazing.
"So obviously the car was being chased and he must have come round the corner too fast and crashed into one car and bounced over and smashed another on the other side and came to rest in the middle of the road.
"He was trapped inside and I was unsure as to whether he was dead.
"Cops were all over the place and then ambulances and a fire engine showed up with massive lights to assist the rescuers."
The shop assistant added: "Crowds gathered, the street was shut and the blue flashing lights illuminated my room for the next few hours.
"I can only presume the driver was alive when they took him away as they put on a neck brace and he was carted off on a stretcher."
Anthony Wood, whose flat looks over the site of the crash, was also woken in the early hours to the sound of crashing cars.
The 51-year-old said: "There were people at the scene until 8am - a few police officers directing traffic.
"People have woken up this morning to see their cars have been whacked.
"The speed he must have been driving to hit the cars like that.
"If it had happened early in the evening or in the morning when more people are about, who knows how it would have been like."
The incident is being investigated by the Met police's collision investigation unit based at Catford.
This investigation is being overseen by the Met police's directorate of professional standards, which is routine in this kind of incident.
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