Police Car Flips Over, Catches Fire After Hitting Giant Pothole on Houston Streets

A Houston police officer was chasing a suspected drunk driver early Friday night when she struck a massive pothole, reports Click2Houston. The hit was hard enough to catch the police cruiser on fire, at which point the officer lost control, flipping the car on its side. 

According to Houston Police Department Lieutenant Christopher Bruce, the chase started around midnight when the officer tried to pull a speeding driver over in east Houston. Instead of stopping, the driver sped away, and the chase was on. The flip occurred about three minutes into the chase. The officer was able to get out of the car on her own, but the suspect escaped.

The officer works for a task force that specializes in driving while intoxicated cases, per the Houston Chronicle. The police car that flipped was an all-white cruiser, which is now quite crumpled on its side. The officer who flipped over in the car mid-pursuit was hospitalized after the crash but suffered no serious injuries.

Police are still looking for the suspect. 

High-speed chases are always dangerous, and this

isn't the first time a Houston police cruiser has flipped mid-chase. (One police car even hit a house after it flipped, which you can read about in the Houston Chronicle.) 

However, it's quite unusual to have a cruiser eaten up by a pothole to this degree, even in Houston, where all the roads feel like they're slowly sinking into the Gulf of Mexico at varying, spine-shattering rates.