USA:Truck Driver Leads Cops on 140-Mile Chase

[Daily News Editor]

Truck Driver Leads Cops on 140-Mile Chase
Authorities said a Texan driving an 18-wheel semitrailer hauling canned dry goods led police on a 140-mile chase through two states before officers arrested him.

Police stopped Alexander Roman, 67, for a minor traffic violation shortly before midnight Wednesday in Morganfield, Ky.

Roman fled after an officer told him his driver's license was suspended, the Williamson County Sheriff's Department said.

Police chased Roman out of Kentucky and through Saline County in southern Illinois. Authorities they laid plastic spiked devices across the road in several spots, deflating most of the truck's tires and reducing its speed to 30 mph from 85 mph, authorities said.

"In our county it became very much a slow-speed pursuit," Saline County Sheriff Ed Miller said.

The truck had lost every tire except one and was riding on the rims by the time Roman reached Williamson County, Miller said. Roman tried to run after the truck stopped near Marion but was quickly captured, authorities said.

Roman, of Seven Points, Texas, was being held at the Williamson County jail Thursday on charges of aggravated battery and aggravated reckless driving, according to the sheriff's department.

The sheriff's department said he had not yet been assigned a public defender. There was no telephone listing for Roman in Seven Points, in Henderson County in East Texas.

Roman later told authorities "it was a big mistake" to flee, according to the Williamson County Sheriff's department
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