An impaired driver heading the wrong way on Route 8 led police on an approximate 33-mile chase up the Naugatuck Valley early Wednesday.
The driver, identified by police as 54-year-old Thomas Plesz of Fairfield, is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Derby today (Jan. 27) to face seven criminal charges, including:
- Assaulting a public safety officer
- Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol
- Driving the wrong way on a divided highway
- First-degree reckless endangerment
- Reckless driving
Police began receiving 911 calls about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday reporting a vehicle traveling north in the southbound lanes of Route 8 between exits 11 and 12 in Shelton.
A trooper tried to stop Plesz, who was driving a 2009 Nissan Frontier pickup truck, near exit 15 — but Plesz sped past the police car.
State police issued an alert to surrounding Valley police departments — and asked them to stop any motorists from getting on Route 8 south.
Seymour police put out spikes in an attempt to stop the drunk wrong-way driver near exit 21 — but Plesz kept going, according to police, even though his right side tires were flat.
Two troopers were deployed further north on Route 8 to alert drivers of the oncoming danger.
Meanwhile, “several attempts were made by troopers to stop the pickup,” according to state police. “However, the operator continued to maneuver his vehicle around the (police) cruisers at a high rate of speed.”
Plesz allegedly rammed a police car near exit 38, then rear-ended a second police car that had pulled in front of him to slow him down.
The chase stopped near exit 38.
Plesz was being held on a $25,000 bond pending a court appearance in Derby.
In addition to the charges listed above, he was charged with disobeying signals from police and interfering.
