High-speed chase into McPherson County ends with driver striking tree

By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Salina Post

A Salina resident led Salina Police Department officers on a high-speed chase onto I-135 Saturday evening until Kansas Highway Patrol troopers took over the chase.

Around 5:15 p.m., Saturday, March 9, an SPD officer observed a black 2003 Chevrolet Trailblazer speeding northbound in the 3800 block of South Ninth Street.

The officer then attempted to conduct a traffic stop with the driver. Instead, he pulled into the nearby Long MacArthur Ford Dealership and tried to speak with the officer from his vehicle.

"The driver began waving his arms and yelling out the window, but the officer couldn't understand what he was trying to say," said SPD Capt. James Feldman. "The vehicle driver made a U-turn in the parking lot, went back out on Ninth Street, and went northbound to Schilling."

Feldman said the officer followed the vehicle, which turned west onto Schilling Road and then onto Interstate 135, where it began speeding up.

The driver, later identified as 53-year-old Robert Webb, reached speeds of 75 to 100 mph on I-135, and from there, KHP troopers joined the chase.

"At mile marker 64 in McPherson County, McPherson County deputies successfully spiked the vehicle, causing damage to both passenger-side tires," Feldman said. "The driver continued, and they attempted to spike it again at mile marker 63, but he avoided the spikes."

After avoiding the spike trap at mile marker 63, the driver continued for another two miles until the Trailblazer left the roadway and crashed into a tree in the west ditch.

McPherson County Sheriff's deputies and the KHP troopers then arrested Webb and searched his vehicle, where they located methamphetamine, marijuana, and an open container of alcohol.

Law enforcement then returned Webb to Salina and requested charges for felony flee and elude, possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving while suspended, no proof of insurance, speeding, illegal vehicle tags, transporting an open container and no drug tax stamp.