After police chase near Kuna, a driver hit oncoming traffic. Two people died
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A vehicle pursuit that involved multiple police agencies early Sunday left two drivers dead after one vehicle drove into oncoming traffic near Kuna.
Ruben Garcia, 34, crashed his vehicle into 28-year-old Jonathan Calderon’s vehicle head-on at a “high rate of speed” shortly after midnight on Sunday, according to the Ada County Coroner’s Office and Ada County Sheriff’s Office. The Kuna Police Department was pursuing Garcia, of Rigby, because he was driving fast and “erratically,” according to an Ada County news release.
The collision killed both drivers and occurred near the intersection of East Kuna and North Meridian roads, commonly known as “the big curve” where Meridian Road transitions into Avalon Street.
Law enforcement officers and deputies are expected to “balance the safety of the public and themselves against ACSO’s duty to apprehend violators,” according to the sheriff’s office policy manual. The manual also stated that “vehicle pursuits expose innocent citizens, law enforcement officers, and fleeing violators to the risk of serious injury or death.”
Kuna police follow the same policies as the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, spokesperson Patrick Orr told the Idaho Statesman.
The Ada County Coroner’s Office’s initial report said Garcia, who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.
Emergency crews removed Calderon from his vehicle, and he was transported to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise. But life-saving measures were unsuccessful, and he died in an emergency room less than an hour after the crash, according to the coroner’s report and police. The Boise resident was wearing a seat belt, and no one else was in the vehicle.
The Ada County Coroner’s Office did not release Calderon or Garcia’s cause or manner of death.
Meridian, Kuna cops chase driver
The Meridian Police Department attempted to stop Garcia shortly before midnight after he was driving erratically and didn’t have his headlights on near Meridian Road and East Central Drive, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
Garcia took off and began driving at a “high rate of speed” the wrong way on Main Street, and then went south on Meridian Road toward Kuna, the release said.
Meridian police initiated a pursuit but called it off when Garcia crossed Lake Hazel Road into Kuna’s jurisdiction, authorities said. Meridian police notified Kuna police that Garcia was headed their way.
An unidentified Kuna officer was stopped at Columbia Road when Garcia’s Nissan Altima drove by at a high rate of speed.
The officer turned on his emergency lights and began following the car, authorities said. Another unidentified Kuna officer put down spike strips across Meridian Road near the Deer Flat intersection, according to the news release, but Garcia drove around them and kept going south.
Garcia shortly after that lost control of his car, drove into oncoming traffic, and hit Calderon’s pickup truck head-on.
The investigation is being handled by Ada County’s Critical Incident Task Force, and the Boise Police Department is the lead agency because of Kuna police’s involvement in the collision.
Reporter Sally Krutzig contributed.
