Sunnyside police looking for driver who led them on late night chase

SUNNYSIDE — Police here are looking a driver who led them on a wild chase Thursday night that resembled a scene from the “Dukes of Hazzard.”

Police say the Augustine Jaime Avalos fled a routine traffic stop in a 1990 Honda Accord and sped through town and the surrounding country side, blowing stop signs, sliding through turns and even once leaving the road while jumping off a bump.

The chase started when an officer tried to pull over Avalos, 33, of Sunnyside, for defective brake lights about 11 p.m. in the 800 block of Fourth Street.

As soon as the officer turned on his lights, the motorist sped away, running stop signs and reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour, according to a police news release.

The pursuit took officers throughout town and into unincorporated areas south of Snipes Mountain and near Outlook on both gravel and paved roads, including one private drive, according the release.

It ended when the driver turned from Lester Road east onto a dirt road following a canal. The vehicle hit a bump, went air born and landed in a cloud of black smoke, the release said.

The driver managed one more turn, south on Maple Grove, before stopping and the two occupants ran away into a vineyard, the release said.

Officers caught the passenger, a a 30-year-old Sunnyside man, and will seek charges of resisting arrest.

Fellow officers and a Yakima County Sheriff’s Deputies searched for Avalos with no luck, the release said.

They plan to seek charges of attempting to elude a pursuing marked police vehicle and driving with a suspended license.

-- Ross Courtney