High speed chase ends in jail

A young woman attempted to elude an Oregon State Police officer on a fast and potentially fatal chase from Suttle Lake toward Sisters just before 10 a.m. on Monday, November 17.

According to Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Mike Decker, he clocked the red Nissan Sentra at 88 miles per hour near the chain-up area above Suttle Lake. The trooper turned around and turned on his overhead lights.

The woman accelerated to 90 miles per hour at the bottom of the hill near the Suttle Lake turn-off, passing a truck on a blind curve. Decker said she accelerated to nearly 100 mph as she headed toward the Camp Sherman road.

The trooper then turned off his overhead lights and backed off. The driver slowed to 45 miles per hour near Black Butte Ranch, but started aiming her car at oncoming traffic, perhaps considering suicide. Trooper Decker went around her car, with a Black Butte Ranch Police vehicle moving in behind to assist.

Decker put down a tack strip just west of Indian Ford, and parked his car in the center lane. The driver did not see the strip and drove over it, flattening both front tires. She then pulled off to the side of the road and stopped.

The driver, refusing to identify herself to officers, appeared to be in her early 20s, heavy set, wearing a tank top and sweat pants.

The vehicle had been registered to a woman in Astoria, but was flagged in Department of Motor Vehicles files as having been recently sold.

Unless it is determined that the driver was psychologically impaired, she will be charged at least with DUII, reckless driving and attempting to elude. She was transported to Deschutes County Jail.