BEATRICE – An attempted traffic stop ended in a collision between two vehicles, Monday night, at 7:50 p.m.  The wreck happened at 2nd and Court in Beatrice, next to the Gage County Museum.


A Dodge pickup that was the subject of an attempted traffic stop collided with a white Ford sport utility vehicle, with the pickup turning onto its side, just north of the intersection.


Beatrice Police Sergeant Derrick Hosick said police responded to an OnStar alert to a collision, after a Nebraska State Patrol Trooper attempted a traffic stop.
"In talking with the state trooper, it sounds like he tried to initiate a traffic stop for excessive speed through town. The individual started to flee from him and may have stopped at one point in the middle of the intersection and NSP was kind of directing him where to safely park....he took off again at excessive speed and that's where the collision happened here on Court Street."


Hosick said it appeared the occupants of the Ford involved in the collision were not seriously hurt after being checked over by Beatrice Fire and Rescue crew members.

Ford SUV struck by fleeing pickup


"The passenger of the white car and her child were both fine. They were seen by BFR and they're going to be released....and then the NSP will be conducting further investigation on the driver of the pickup."

Nebraska State Patrol spokesman Cody Thomas says the state trooper attempted to stop the pickup for speeding on U.S. 136.  The pickup, driven by 50-year-old Christopher Drees, of Daykin…turned onto Third Street and stopped in the driving lane on Market Street.  Thomas said when the trooper tried to contact the driver, the pickup fled west on Market…the wrong way on an eastbound one-way. 

The truck driven by Drees then turned north onto Second Street, the wrong way on a southbound one-way.  That’s when the pickup entered the intersection of Second and Court, colliding with the eastbound Ford SUV.

After being taken to Beatrice Community Hospital and being medically cleared, Drees was taken to Gage County Jail, where he was being held for flight to avoid arrest, willful reckless driving, speeding, traveling the wrong way on a one-way street and disobeying a traffic control device.

The Ford S-U-V came to rest in the middle of the intersection of 2nd Court…or Highway 136.  The pickup came to rest on its side just north of the intersection. 

Police blocked off the intersection for at least 45 minutes while rescue personnel were on scene.

Christopher Drees (Gage County Jail Photo)