By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
EASTHAMPTON - A local teen who fled the scene of a car accident after allegedly leading area police on a high-speed chase was arraigned Tuesday on charges of negligent operation of a motor vehicle, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and failing to stop for police.
According to court documents, police were instructed during the evening roll call to be on the lookout for a red Chevrolet Equinox driven by Ryan Lamontagne, 17, of 22 Exeter St., Easthampton, because he was wanted on outstanding arrest warrants.
Police said they were given the car's license plate after Lamontagne visited his mother, Bonny Lamontagne, at work earlier in the day. She was aware that he was wanted by authorities and called in to the station to report the license plate and to ask police to look for him, police said.
According to the report, at approximately 7:38 p.m., Officer Dennis Scribner saw the vehicle, with four teen occupants, travel through the rotary on Main Street and pulled the car over when it turned onto Florence Road.
Scribner reported that when he got out of his cruiser and approached the driver side of the vehicle, the car sped away north on Florence Road. Scribner said he caught up with the car as it approached Lyman Street, where it allegedly crossed the marked center lines and was driving dangerously fast in the wrong lane of a blind hill. As the car continued down Route 66, Scribner estimated that it was traveling in excess of 100 mph and called in for support from members of the Northampton Police and troopers from the Massachusetts State Police.
Minutes later, Northampton police received a 911 call from a resident at the corner of Florence and Maple Ridge roads reporting that a vehicle had left the roadway, crashed through some bushes and struck a tree in their yard.
Officers responding to the scene of the accident began following several sets of tracks in the snow leading away from the vehicle and quickly located two of the car's teenage occupants, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old. Several minutes later, police reportedly spotted Lamontagne walking along Route 66 near Spruce Lane. While being placed under arrest for outstanding warrants, Lamontagne allegedly denied running from police or being involved in the accident and said he was simply "walking in the area coincidentally."
At the scene, the two occupants told police that during the chase, they repeatedly asked Lamontagne to stop the vehicle and that he had crashed trying to lose police by turning down a side street to hide.
The third occupant was called into the police department after returning home, and eventually all three, with their parents present, filled out voluntary witness statements about the incident implicating Lamontagne as the driver.
One of the teens requested that paramedics examine his foot, which he had injured during the accident. During the booking process, police found that Lamontagne did not have a driver's license and reported that while in police custody he had allegedly placed a telephone call saying that he was in a high-speed chase and had crashed the car he was driving.
Jessica Powell, the owner of the Chevrolet, said she was unaware Lamontagne did not have a driver's license and had lent him the car so he could go to a basketball game. She said he was supposed to have it back to her by 9 p.m.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.
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