Woman Crashed 3 Times Prior to Being Pinned by Sheriff's Cruiser: Police

SAN CARLOS, CA- A San Carlos woman and sheriff's sergeant were hospitalized Monday morning following a crash on El Camino Real which stemmed from a series of bizarre behavior on the Peninsula, authorities report.

It all started around 7:40 a.m., when a woman crashed her silver Toyota Camry into a San Carlos fire station and fled, according to San Mateo County Sheriff's Sgt. Salvador Zuno. It wouldn't end in the crash until that same woman first crashed into a grocery store, then into a car and finally led police on a low-speed pursuit, he says.

"While deputies were searching for that vehicle, we received word that the driver of the same vehicle had crashed into Safeway at El Camino Real and Ralston in Belmont," the detective told Patch by telephone Monday morning. "She fled that, too."

Sheriff's officials soon spotted the woman driving erratically in the area, and tried to pull her over, according to Zuno.

"However, she refused to stop," he says. "A low-speed pursuit started at about 35 mph."

As a sheriff's sergeant followed the woman along El Camino Real, she hit another vehicle, but continued on, according to Zuno. She then tried to drive the wrong way on the busy thoroughfare.

Apparently still not ready to stop, the woman tried to drive north in the southbound lanes of El Camino, he says. So the sheriff's sergeant "took action and used his car to block her in" and "used his car to push her off the sidewalk."

"The force of both vehicles driving towards each other caused the Camry to go on top of the other vehicle," he says. With nowhere left to go, the woman was apprehended.

"Had he not pushed her off the roadway, she would have caused a head-on collision," Zuno tells Patch.

Both the woman and the sergeant suffered minor injuries and were taken to an area hospital following the crash. When the woman is cleared, she'll be arrested, according to Zuno.

San Mateo County sheriff's officials briefly closed off southbound El Camino Real in the San Carlos area following the pursuit crash, the agency reports.

At 9:34 a.m., officials posted photographs on Twitter from the scene. One appears to show a sheriff's cruiser underneath a Toyota Camry sedan. The other photo shows officials on scene, seemingly gathering evidence.

The agency said on Twittter that southbound El Camino Real was closed between Olive and Arroyo. That stretch of roadway reopened around 11 a.m.

Zuno says officials are working to determine if the woman was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

"Irrational driving like that is not normal," he said. "Those are all indicators that something was not okay; that something was out of the norm."

He identified the woman as 54-year-old Karen Teichmann of San Carlos.

(Image via the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office)