A trooper monitoring traffic just after 5 p.m. Nov. 15 on Interstate 75 in West Chester Twp. spotted a gray 2021 Dodge Durango headed north recklessly at high speed, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
The driver, later identified as Banks, reportedly would not stop for the trooper, who initiated a pursuit on I-75 North. According to the patrol, Banks used all four lanes of the highway and both shoulders during the chase. Also, troopers learned the Dodge was reported stolen from Hamilton County, where someone in the vehicle had brandished a gun at law enforcement, according to Cox First Media news partner WCPO.
Credit: Warren County Jail
Credit: Warren County Jail
Banks briefly got off the highway in Middletown, but quickly got back on I-75 North before exiting in Franklin. Banks drove into Franklin Community Park on Ohio 123, where a trooper performed a precision immobilization technique maneuver. Banks reportedly struck a Middletown cruiser head-on, WCPO reported.
The pursuit continued west on Ohio 123, where the fleeing Durango did not stop at the four-way stop sign at West Sixth and South Main streets in Franklin and rear-ended a 2006 Honda Odyssey. The impact forced both vehicles to strike a fence and a house, according to a crash report from the patrol’s Lebanon Post.
The 76-year-old Franklin woman driving the minivan was seriously injured. She was taken to Atrium Medical Center in Middletown and then transferred to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, troopers reported.
Her passenger, a 59-year-old Middletown woman, suffered minor injuries and was taken to Kettering Health Franklin.
Banks was taken to a local hospital for evaluation before he was booked into the Warren County Jail, where he remains held.
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