BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) - A man drowned after a police chase when the pickup truck he was driving veered into a drainage canal in northwest Beaumont early Wednesday.
Beaumont police say an officer pulled over a suspected drunk driver on Eastex Freeway just before 1 a.m., but the man sped away as the officer approached him. The chase ended when he failed to negotiate a frontage road U-turn at the canal and the truck plunged into the canal.
The man tried to swim across the canal to avoid police, only to find officers on the other side as well. At that point, officers lost sight of him. Fire-rescue divers found his body three hours later.
His identity hasn't been released.
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Information assist from: KBMT-TV, http://www.kbmt12.com
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
