Police bodycam footage captures the rescue of a shivering suspect from a lake after a car chase in North Yorkshire.
North Yorkshire Police tried to stop Davey Smith, who was eighteen. He drove a Ford Mondeo suspiciously early on November 6th last year. He didn’t stop, starting a chase near Scarborough. Police drivers followed Smith to Forge Valley, a rural area a few miles from town. Cops used a stinger, which deflated the Mondeo’s tires.
The chase ended safely there, and Smith and a passenger ran to Throxenby Mere. Police caught the passenger fast but couldn’t find Smith at first. They searched for forty-five minutes with flashlights before Sergeant Mark Patterson saw a figure almost fully underwater.
Bodycam video shows Patterson pulling Smith out, who was very cold from the lake. Patterson said they arrested Smith and gave him immediate first aid, helping him warm up until an ambulance arrived soon after. Smith was shivering badly from the cold.
Police wrapped him in a foil blanket, gave him a woolly police hat, and a thick winter police coat. Patterson stated it was not a smart hiding place and he could have hurt himself badly. Patterson added that Smith drove very dangerously, putting others at great risk.
Patterson was glad they used tactics that stopped him safely in a quiet place. Smith went to the hospital first before being charged with crimes later. The other guy, seventeen years old, was released with no charges. Smith admitted his guilt to dangerous driving, failing to stop, failing to give blood for analysis, driving without insurance, and lacking a proper license.
A court in Scarborough sentenced Smith to thirty-two months in prison, suspended for eighteen months. He has to do 200 hours of unpaid work. They banned him from driving for twenty-eight months and he must pay over £270 in costs and fines.