DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. (WTVR) - Charges are pending against a man who crashed his car after police said he drove through a checkpoint Tuesday evening in Dinwiddie County. A passenger in the car, identified by Virginia State Police as 20-year-old Darius Cox, of Petersburg, died in the crash.
In an email, State Police spokesman Sgt. Thomas Molnar said 24-year-old Jamal Hall, of Petersburg, refused to stop his 2008 Chevrolet Impala at a checkpoint set-up along Route 40 near Route 665 in Dinwiddie.
Molnar said Dinwiddie deputies pursued the Impala, which reached speeds of more than 80 miles per hour, for about five minutes. Four miles into the pursuit, police said Hall lost control of the car and crashed three miles east of Route 665, Walkers Mill Road in Dinwiddie.
Cox, who was sitting in the back seat, was thrown from the vehicle and died, Molnar said. Hall was flown to VCU Medical Center with serious life-threatening injuries. A front-seat passenger suffered serious non-life threatening injuries. No one in the car was wearing a seat belt, Molnar said.
The state police investigation is on-going, Molnar said.
William Knot, with the Dinwiddie Sheriff's Office, called Tuesday's DUI checkpoint a routine operation and not in response to any specific situation.
