Motorcycle VS Cops: Dashcam Captures Intense Police Chase

A Lynchburg man faces up to 6 years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to charges connected to a late-night, high-speed chase through city streets ending in a motorcycle wreck. Lewis Edward Fields, 44, pleaded guilty to charges of felony eluding and misdemeanor driving on a suspended license in Lynchburg Circuit Court. Prosecutors said Fields was arrested Jan. 3 after eluding police and leading them on a nearly 10-minute chase turning on various Lynchburg streets, sometimes reaching 100 miles per hour and going the wrong way against oncoming traffic. The incident began at about 12:10 a.m., when Trooper T. W. Fridley, of the Virginia State Police, observed Fields driving a motorcycle eastbound on Fort Avenue toward the Wards Road intersection, Chuck Felmlee, chief deputy commonwealth’s attorney for Lynchburg, said in an email.

Between the intersections with Graves Mill Road and Sandusky Drive, Fields was clocked going about 83 mph in a 35-mph zone, Felmlee said. When the trooper tried to stop Fields for speeding, he took off and ran the red light at Fort Avenue/Wards Road, then continued on Fort Avenue at speeds of more than 100 mph, Felmlee said. The chase, a video of which was shown in court, took numerous twists and turns onto nine more streets , with Fields sometimes facing oncoming traffic in the wrong lane, making an illegal turn and ignoring a stop sign or signal, much of the time at more than 100 mph, according to Felmlee’s description.

Multiple Lynchburg police vehicles responded to the chase, which he called extremely dangerous. About seven minutes into the chase, Fields, while traveling about 50 mph to 60 mph on Long Meadows Drive, struck a curb and wrecked when he attempted to apply the brakes in wet grass, and after a short foot chase, he was arrested by Fridley and two Lynchburg police officers, the prosecutor said. Jordan Davies, defense attorney for Fields, declined comment prior to sentencing. Fields has been held in jail with no bond since his arrest. He will remain in jail with no bond pending his sentencing Nov. 16 at 1:30 p.m. in Circuit Court, Felmlee said.