FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: Dec. 30, 2014
CONTACT PERSON: Emily H. Harris- 610.891.4163
On Monday, Dec. 29, at approximately 4:00 pm, a Folcroft Police Officer assigned to a traffic monitoring detail observed a white Nissan Maxima traveling west at a normal rate of speed on Chester Pike. The police officer observed that the vehicle’s Certificate of Inspection was peeled back from the windshield and that the Certificate of Inspection appeared to be counterfeit. The officer turned left into the parking lot of Jimmy D’s Tavern located on the 1500 block of Chester Pike to make a U-turn for the purpose of conducting a motor vehicle stop of the white Nissan sedan and the operator. Upon pulling onto Chester Pike traveling west, the Nissan then turned left from Chester Pike onto Primos Avenue heading south.
After waiting for traffic to clear, the police officer followed the vehicle onto Primos Avenue traveling south at a normal rate of speed. The operator of the Nissan then activated the left turn signal to turn left onto Glen Avenue. At this point the officer was traveling behind the Nissan and activated the emergency lights and siren of his police vehicle in an attempt to stop the vehicle.
While attempting to stop the Nissan at a normal rate of speed, the Folcroft police officer notified Delaware County Emergency Communications Center over police radio that he was attempting to conduct a motor vehicle stop.
While continuing to follow the Nissan through neighborhoods surrounding Glen Avenue and Folcroft Avenue for several blocks, the police officer observed that the operator of the Nissan turned onto Chester Pike traveling west and accelerated to an excessive rate of speed. While continuing to attempt to follow the Nissan on Chester Pike several blocks behind, the officer lost sight of the vehicle due to heavy traffic. The police officer then observed a cloud of smoke in the air in the direction which the Nissan had been traveling.
The officer than came upon the scene of the accident, in front of the Glenolden Fire Co. He observed that the Nissan collided with a red Pontiac Grand Am head-on. The Nissan had been observed by witnesses traveling west bound in the eastbound lane of Chester Pike at excessive speed prior to the collision. The operator of the Nissan, Mark Eric Anderson, 25, of Chester, was pronounced dead at the scene. Accident investigators from the Criminal Investigation Division and the Southeast Crash Reconstruction Team responded to the scene to assist with the investigation.