A police pursuit that began on a Hillcrest-area street Tuesday afternoon ended about a half-hour later in Sorrento Valley, where, police said, a fleeing motorist pulled his white Mercedes over on a roughly three-story-high freeway bridge and jumped off of it, injuring himself.
The driver, whose name was not immediately available, refused to stop when a San Diego Police Department officer tried to pull him over for a seat belt violation at Fifth Avenue and Washington Street about 2:45 p.m., SDPD spokesman Scott Lockwood said.
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The man fled to the east for a short distance before getting onto State Route 163 and heading north, eventually merging onto Interstate 805 and then Interstate 5 while passing through northern San Diego.
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Near the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the fleeing motorist exited I-5 then entered it again, this time heading south, where he drew the attention of a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer.
Reaching a ramp at the merger of I-5 and 805, the man finally pulled to a stop, got out of the sedan and leaped over a concrete barrier on the western side of the elevated roadway, according to CHP, which by then had taken over the pursuit.
The man landed in a patch of shrubbery, where officers arrested him. Paramedics took him to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries suffered in the roughly 30-foot fall, CHP public affairs Officer Salvador Castro said.
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After the incident, SkyRanger 7 spotted officers questioning a person on the ground outside the Mercedes up on the overpass, though it's not clear if that person was taken into custody.
