LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A stolen-car suspect surrendered after leading police on a dangerous chase through the San Fernando Valley for more than an hour, darting into oncoming lanes and smashing into other drivers to evade capture.
The chase began around 8:30 p.m. in the city of San Fernando. The driver sped over freeways and surface streets in the northeast valley, going through Pacoima, Van Nuys, Northridge and other communities.
Early in the chase, the gray sedan smashed head-on into another vehicle as it turned into an intersection. With a police cruiser close behind, the car continued driving after the crash.
At times, the vehicle was seen driving with the lights off. It also hit speeds up to 80 mph on surface streets and swerved into lanes on the wrong side of the road in an effort to get away.
Another crash happened later in the North Hills area, as the suspect T-boned another motorist and then again kept going.
Later the suspect slowed down in a residential neighborhood in Panorama City, where a person approached the vehicle and handed something to the driver before he drove off again.
Then at a Van Nuys strip mall, he pulled up next to a white work van and said something to the driver. The other person threw a small object to him through the window and he drove off again, missing a spike strip.
And again a short time later he approached a man standing on the sidewalk and appeared to bum a cigarette from him, smoking it briefly before taking off again.
The chase finally ended shortly after 9:30 p.m. when the driver slowed down in the area of Nordhoff Street and Willis Avenue. Officers swarmed the vehicle on foot and were able to take him into custody without further incident.
Toward the end of the pursuit, a black pickup truck was following the suspect, appearing to be trying to convince him to slow down. The connection, if any, with the suspect was not known.
After the chase ended, officers ordered the pickup driver to pull over and exit his vehicle with his hands up, after a report he may have been armed. He emerged with his hands up and surrendered without incident.