By Mitchell Clarke
A “manic” driver came within millimetres of hitting cars as he weaved through traffic to allegedly evade police in Officer.
Dash cam footage captured the moment a silver Toyota Land Cruiser veered off the Princes Freeway, into the emergency lane and on to the grass in a bid to get away from a following cop car.
Pakenham man Chris Martin was on his way to pick up his young daughter from pre-school when he noticed the agitated driver travelling behind him, just after 4pm on Wednesday 22 July.
“All of a sudden I noticed this car which was right up my back,” Mr Martin explained.
“He was just manic. He took an evasive move because he wanted to get around me, so he drove on the grass before weaving back into traffic, missing me by millimetres.”
Mr Martin said the “frightening” incident was made even more scary, as drivers were unable to escape the vehicle’s path.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in person before, you only ever seen that sort of stuff on TV,” he said.
“It was crazy and you couldn’t get out of his way because there was just so much traffic. I could tell that everyone was stressed.
“It was very frightening but I’m just grateful my daughter wasn’t in the car to witness it. I had to pull over at 7/11 to gather myself.
“This is just poor form from a driver who only cares about themselves. People are stressed enough with Covid, this lockdown and now masks, to have to worry about this as well.”
As seen in the dash cam footage, the vehicle appeared to attempt a U-turn before abruptly pulling back into traffic, after noticing police in pursuit.
A Victoria Police spokesman said police were patrolling the Princes Freeway when the silver vehicle is alleged to have driven through a red light.
Police claim the driver continue to drive westbound along the road.
A number of police units were called in to search the area but officers were unable to locate the vehicle.
