Because navigating regular construction zones and dodging red-light runners isn’t thrilling enough for Hub City residents, local drivers have apparently decided to turn our flat, dusty streets into an amateur stunt driving course. This week, Lubbock was treated to not one, but two separate police pursuits, proving that while our city may lack topography, entertainment options, and general driving competence, we certainly don’t lack confidence.
First up, we had a classic Wednesday afternoon matinee in North Lubbock County. A couple of local visionaries—21-year-old Julian Ortega-Rangel and 29-year-old Margarito Chavez-Lugo—decided that a routine traffic violation near 4th and Bangor was the perfect excuse to test the off-road capabilities of a white van. What followed was a thrilling, 15-minute scenic tour of Northeast Lubbock’s finest paved and unpaved roads, because nothing screams “clean getaway” like kicking up a massive cloud of caliche dust that can be seen from space. After realizing a heavy van is a terrible rally car, they stopped on the I-27 service road and tried to outrun the law on foot. Pro tip for future fugitives: running across flat-as-a-pancake West Texas terrain provides exactly zero cover. They were quickly arrested, completely uninjured, but presumably very dusty.
Not to be outdone by the north side, South Lubbock decided to spice up Saturday night with a little more pyrotechnics. Around 8:50 p.m., police locked onto a suspect in a pursuit that eventually came to a grinding halt in the 7000 block of University Avenue. Instead of a boring old foot race, this driver decided to go out in a literal blaze of glory, concluding the chase with their vehicle entirely on fire. Details on what triggered the chase are still unknown, but you really have to admire the dedication it takes to push a getaway car so far past its maintenance schedule that it transforms into a mobile barbecue right in front of a parking lot.
At this rate, TxDOT might as well just designate the left lane of Loop 289 exclusively for high-speed police pursuits and call it a day.
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