---
title: "Police Car Flips Over, Catches Fire After Hitting Giant Pothole on Houston Streets"
description: "Everything's bigger in Texas—even the potholes."
date: "2019-12-30"
modified: "2020-01-03"
authors:
  - name: "Stef Schrader"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/stef-schrader"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/31662/police-car-flips-over-catches-fire-after-hitting-giant-pothole-on-houston-streets"
categories:
  - "News"
---

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

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2019/12/flipcar_970x546.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

America's [crumbling](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/6993/why-donald-trumps-1-trillion-infrastructure-plan-actually-matters>)

[infrastructure](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/10903/watch-this-underground-water-pipe-explode-and-destroy-a-city-street>) strikes again—this time against the long arm of the law.

A Houston police officer was chasing a suspected drunk driver early Friday night when she struck a massive pothole, reports [*Click2Houston*](<https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2019/12/27/houston-police-cruiser-catches-fire-flips-during-chase/>). 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.

https://youtube.com/embed/xfF-Io8v_MQ

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*](<https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/drunk-driver-HPD-cop-pothole-chase-pursuit-14933874.php>). 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.

![message-editor%2F1577727136403-houflip\_970x546.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content-b/message-editor/1577727136403-houflip_970x546.jpg>)
**Screencap via [KHOU](<https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/hpd-crashes-on-boyles/285-7dd1dbb6-8241-49bf-a6b3-37466fd7e65a?fbclid=IwAR3kR08cCvl_E2HJBAkfaRRgwsEmFaM2DrVEw-LV6tGHIjQX45ecIUhPQ9g>)**

High-speed chases are always [dangerous](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/25519/watch-a-high-speed-pursuit-end-with-a-crash-into-innocent-bystanders>), and [this](<https://youtu.be/Z3gdrB7aZMQ>)

[isn't](<https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/HPD-officer-hospitalized-after-vehicle-flips-12204651.php>) 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*](<https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/HPD-officer-hospitalized-after-vehicle-flips-12204651.php>).)

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.

## Author
Stef Schrader is a former senior staff writer for The Drive. She started writing about cars in 2013 after meeting Jalopnik's editor-in-chief at a race track, where Stef can be found at every available opportunity.

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefschrader/>)  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/stefthepef>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/stefthepef>)