State police have released additional details on a pursuit last week in Fort Smith that ended in a wreck, injuring a trooper and killing a driver.
An officer with the U.S. Forest Service began pursuing a Dodge headed south on U.S. 71 around 6:30 a.m. Friday, according to a state police news release. The officer reportedly saw the vehicle fail to stop for a traffic signal and pass through the intersection along the highway shoulder.
Authorities said state police trooper Michael Ellis later joined the pursuit.
Shortly before 7 a.m., the Dodge’s driver, 34-year-old Justin Battenfield, turned his vehicle east onto Arkansas 255, police said. He encountered Ellis, who attempted to stop him by using a "precision immobilization technique," according to the news release.
During the maneuver, the vehicles collided and both veered off the road, a preliminary crash report states. The Dodge hit the embankment of a roadside ditch and flipped before striking a utility pole, according to the report.
Troopers said both vehicles then struck a second utility pole before each came to a rest.
Battenfield died in the wreck, while Ellis sustained injuries state police said were not life threatening.
Thomas Saccente of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette contributed to this story.