Man leads police on a high-speed chase in Montville
An intoxicated man led Montville police officers on a high speed chase through a school zone before he was apprehended.
Officers responded to the Montville Chase Condominium Development on Feb. 19 at 7:54 p.m. on a report of a man slumped over the steering wheel of his vehicle. The driver asleep behind the wheel was "startled awake" by the flashing lights of the police vehicles and sped off, said Police Chief Rudy Appelmann.
Police officers followed the driver, eventually identified as Joseph Kapel, 48 of Pompton Lakes, on to Changebridge Road at a “high rate of speed,” then past the Montville Community Center. The chief said Kapel drove on the wrong side of the road and “narrowly avoided a collision with the ambulance responding to assist him” and then just stopped in the middle of the road.
“As the officer approached the vehicle the male attempted to put the car in park, but missed, putting the car in reverse,” said Appelmann.
The vehicle then rolled back and into a police car. “The male then lost consciousness and was taken to Morristown Memorial,” Appelmann said.
Kapel was charged with driving while intoxicated, driving while intoxicated in a school zone, attempt to elude a police officer and failure to produce documents.
Email: myers@northjersey.com
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