OPP use GPS dart technology to track high-speed vehicle

Photo: OPP used STAR tag to track vehicle. Driver arrested in Burlington (David Ritchie)

Updated: Ontario Provincial Police used new STAR technology to track and arrest a Brantford man in connection with an early Friday morning RIDE program.

Brant County OPP stopped a black 2014 Honda Civic just before 3:30 a.m. while conducting a RIDE check in the area of Cockshutt Road at Oxbow Road, in Brant County.

Police say the driver had been drinking alcohol and failed a road side screening device test. The device is used to determine how much alcohol is in the blood.

Once the officer advised him he was under arrest, he got back in his vehicle and fled. The officer got into his car, followed and shot out the tracker. It has glue that will keep it attached without damaging the car.

“The driver started south of the City of Brantford in Brant County,” said Provincial Constable Ken Johnston. “He travelled east on Highway 403 through Hamilton, then on the QEW to Niagara. He turned around heading east on the QEW toward Burlington, then he went onto Highway 407.”

It was another hour and a half before he was pulled over and he had driven 155 km.

“An an initial attempt to stop the vehicle in Burlington resulted in two police cars being damaged and two officers suffered minor injuries,” Johnston said.

Eventually the driver was surrounded and boxed in by OPP on Highway 407.  He fled through a field and was brought down  by a Hamilton police dog.

OPP have charged a 34-year-old Brantford man with impaired driving, dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, failing to provide a breath sample and four counts of mischief endangering life.

Johnston said there were two female passengers in the car. They are not being charged.