A Japanese family may not be keen on visiting the United States as a holiday destination after the parents were pulled out a car at gunpoint for accidentally starting a high-speed chase.
The chase began at 1am on Saturday near the Utah-Arizona border, when the family's car was spotted swerving in and out of different lanes. More than a dozen officers were there, working on a special DUI project. Officer Horne spotted the car and, due to the swerving, assumed it was being driven by a drunk driver.
Instead of stopping when the Officer started to signal for her to pull over, the driver sped up and started going 75mph, weaving in and out of lanes and onto the hard shoulder. Soon, three patrol cars were chasing the vehicle and setting down tire spikes. The car stopped just after having its tires deflated by the spikes.
Upon ordering the occupants of the car to exit the vehicle and walk backwards through a loudhailer, a middle-aged Japanese woman emerged from the car and starting walking backwards, forwards, and spinning around. "She obviously had no idea what we wanted her to do," said Horne.
The officers approached with their guns drawn and pulled the man and woman from the car. It was then they saw the 7-year old boy in the car and it became clear the couple couldn't speak English. "They were terrified," Horne stated.
After getting a Japanese-speaking officer on the phone to translate, the picture became clearer. "She kept apologising for crashing the car. She didn't even realise she'd driven over spikes. The couple didn't know what we wanted them to do."
Though the couple did not have Japanese driving licences, after all became clear, the officers took the family to a nearby motel and no charges were pressed.
