A Chesterton resident was arrested Saturday on a charge of resisting law enforcement after Chesterton Police said that he led an officer on a high-speed pursuit through town.

According to police, at 3:03 a.m. an officer was dispatched to northbound Waverly Road in response to a report of a possibly intoxicated motorist driving a green Ford pickup truck. While en route, police said, the officer passed a green pickup southbound on Waverly. The officer turned around and picked up the vehicle at the intersection of Waverly and Woodlawn Ave., where police said that the truck turned left onto eastbound Woodlawn and proceeded “at a high rate of speed” with “sparks coming from underneath the vehicle.”

The officer, his emergency lights activated, followed the pickup as it turned right onto southbound Locust Street, “violently drove over the railroad tracks” at the Norfolk Southern grade-crossing at a speed which the officer estimated at 45 miles per hour, then turned right onto westbound Wabash Ave., disregarding the stop sign there, police said.

The pursuit ended when the motorist, subsequently identified as Peter M. Anderson, 59, pulled into his own driveway at 602 Wabash Ave., police said. “I asked Mr. Anderson why he did not stop when I activated my overhead emergency lights and he said that he thought someone was chasing him,” the arresting officer stated in his report.

Police said that Anderson showed signs of intoxication and failed several field sobriety tests but registered a blood alcohol content of .031 percent on a portable breath test. Motorists in Indiana are considered legally intoxicated when they score a B.A.C. of .08 percent or higher.

“It is unknown what caused Mr. Anderson’s vehicle to spark so violently and there appeared to be no damage to the body to indicate that he was involved in an accident,” police said.

Anderson—who was issued a citation for disregarding a stop sign—was transported to Porter County Jail.

Posted 1/25/2010