On the evening of August 28, a Spring Valley Police officer, while responding to an unrelated call, observed a vehicle completely stopped in the westbound lane of Rt. 59 just west of the intersection with New Clarkstown Rd., with no vehicles in front of it. The officer quickly discovered that the operator, who was the vehicle’s sole occupant, appeared unresponsive behind the wheel and the vehicle was still running.

After parking his patrol car in front of the other car to protect the driver and the public, the officer called for backup and then attempted to get into the car to render aid to the driver. When the officers were unable to wake the driver or get into the car because the doors were locked, they attempted to break the window to gain entry. At that point, the driver woke up and attempted to evade police and fled west on Route 59.

The driver deliberately crashed the car, driving into empty cars, stopping police cars and other vehicles with people inside who were driving on the roadway trying to escape.

The vehicle was then immobilized several hundred yards away from all of the crashes and surrounded by police cars, at which point the operator was extricated from the vehicle and taken into custody. The suspect, two officers, and several people in the vehicles that were struck were taken to local hospitals with minor, non-life-threatening injuries.

The subject, Nelson Torres, 54, of Yonkers, was taken to Nyack Hospital for medical and psychological evaluation, where he remained until Thursday afternoon. He was charged with first-degree wanton endangerment, third-degree unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle, reckless driving, first-degree leaving the scene of a crash with bodily injury, driving while impaired, driving while impaired by drugs, and numerous other traffic and vehicle-related offenses.