Driver arrested after OSP chase of stolen rental van on I-5

A 38-year-old man has been arrested on several charges after a wild pursuit Sunday afternoon of a stolen rental van on Interstate 5 in the Willamette Valley, Oregon State Police reported.

OSP dispatch got a driving complaint around 4 p.m. of a U-Haul van being driven recklessly on I-5 northbound in the Albany area, Lt. Steve Mitchell said. A trooper tried to make contact but the driver refused to stop. He was later identified as Jose Flores, 38, with a last known address in Medford.

Due to heavy traffic, the trooper discontinued the attempted traffic stop and notified OSP personnel in Salem. They learned soon after that it was reported stolen in the Seattle area earlier in the day while being used to deliver Amazon packages.

Around 4:20 p.m., Salem-area troopers saw the U-Haul, still being driven recklessly and heading north on the freeway until it got off at the Market Street exit.

Troopers followed the van to the Fred Meyer fuel station at Market Street and Lancaster drive, where they tried to block the U-Haul but were unsuccessful.

Flores pulled back out onto Market Street and struck another car and commercial vehicle, temporarily getting wedged between them.

A trooper tried to block the van from the rear, but the driver rammed the OSP patrol car and other vehicles, sustaining major front-end damage before it returned to I-5, again heading north. OSP troopers pursued the van, and Flores finally pulled to the side of the freeway and stopped around milepost 258 and was taken into custody without incident.

Flores was lodged at the Marion County Jail on charges including posession of a stolen vehicle, failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, attempted assault on a police officer, hit-and-run, mail theft, reckless driving, reckless endangering and giving false information to an officer. Other charges are possible, Mitchell said.

No one was injured in the sequence of events, the lieutenant said. The stolen U-Haul was still filled with mail parcels intended for delivery by Amazon in the Seattle area.