Hit-and-Run Driver Caught After Leading Officers on Multi-Town Chase, Cops Say

A Colonia man fleeing the scene of an accident began a police chase that eventually ended in a crash on Route 22 East in Mountainside Tuesday night, Fanwood Police said.

Gene W. Wells, 57, was first spotted fleeing the scene of an accident on Martine Avenue in Scotch Plains by another driver, police said.

"As he was fleeing, that car was following him and spotted and pulled up to our officers at another motor vehicle accident on South and Martine," Fanwood Police Chief Richard Trigo told Patch. "That driver told one of the officers that the vehicle in front of him, a 2004 black GMC pickup, was just in an accident and fled the scene."

Trigo said a Fanwood officer then got in his vehicle and attempted to pull the truck over, but Wells pulled over and then suddenly drive off again multiple times along Park Avenue, heading toward Route 22. 
 
"The last time he sped away, he struck a pedestrian crossing sign in Scotch Plains," Trigo said. "Our officer continued to pursue as the car turned onto Route 22 East and was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic. When the driver struck another vehicle in the area of Glenside Avenue, the officer cut off the chase and stopped to check the woman struck."

Dispatchers had sent out a countywide alert about the chase and officers from the Mountainside Police Department approached the area, Trigo said.

"We were then alerted by Mountainside that the truck had crashed," Trigo said. 

Wells then resisted arrest and was threatening officers trying to apprehend him, Trigo said. 

He was charged with eluding in Fanwood; aggravated assault, leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, and two counts of criminal mischief in Scotch Plains and terrorist threats and resisting arrest in Mountainside.

He was taken to the Union County Jail and bail is set at $143,500.

A 52-year-old Mountainside woman who was in the vehicle struck by Wells complained of pain and was taken to Overlook Hospital. Trigo said her injuries were not life-threatening.