There could be many reasons for someone to have a bad day, but none of them justify performing dangerous stunts on public roads and putting other motorists’ lives at risk.
That is what happened to a man in Surrey, England, who was caught driving at 130 mph, triggering a police chase that eventually ended with his arrest and a damaged car.
The incident was captured on camera and has since gone viral on social media, highlighting the dangers of reckless driving.
The driver, however, offered a rather unusual explanation for his behavior, claiming that he had inhaled nitrous oxide and was driving recklessly after his girlfriend cheated on him.
The Officer Shouted “Contact! Contact!”
View this post on Instagram
Footage posted on Instagram by the Metropolitan Police showed the officer pursuing the suspect in the middle of the night on the M25. Soon, though, he hit the suspect’s vehicle and shouted, “Contact! Contact!”
The suspect appeared to try to drive off, but the officer blocked his vehicle. He then confronted the suspect from the passenger window, shouting and ordering him to show his hands.
The officer then pinned the suspect to the road and handcuffed him. When he asked the officer why he was being rough, the officer replied:
“Because you’re driving like an absolute imbecile!”
The suspect then said, “I was going to pull over, man.” The officer rejected that explanation. He replied:
“What do you mean you were going to pull over? You failed to stop twice this evening.
“You’ve driven like an absolute idiot. 130 [mph]!”
The officer then asked, “Why you’re doing balloons whilst you’re driving as well?” The phrase likely refers to inhaling nitrous oxide from a balloon. That was when the suspect revealed his story. He said:
“My girl literally just cheated on me, man.”
The officer responded:
“And this is your appropriate response to that? You should have stopped.”
“It’s not even my car as well, fam,” the suspect said.
24-Year-Old Suspect Gets 12 Months in Prison
A report by the Telegraph confirmed that the incident took place in the early hours of March 3, but the footage was recently released by the Metropolitan Police.
Mudassir Sandhu, 24, from Morden, south-west London, was detained and charged with dangerous driving and failing to stop.
The Guildford Crown Court heard that Sandhu was speeding along a road with a speed limit of 20 mph in Croydon, south London, and driving in the wrong direction on the carriageway. He was stopped near Cobham services on the M25 at around 2:20 a.m.
In June, the court sentenced him to 12 months in prison and fined him £187. He was also disqualified from driving for four months. The head of Scotland Yard, Sir Mark Rowley, praised the officer for the way he dealt with the suspect. He said:
“I’ve watched the video. It’s filmed from the perspective of the officer. It’s extraordinary. The calmness of someone driving in a pursuit at 130mph shows how well trained the officers are. The officer is very polite.”
In a Facebook post, MyLondon reported that police officers deployed a ‘stinger’ device to stop Sandhu’s vehicle and then smashed the glass of his BMW X1 to pull him out. It is not known whether he or the officer involved suffered any injuries.