Torrance Officer Tried to Prevent Wrong-Way Van Crash on Freeway

It took a few moments for Torrance police officer Devin Chase to believe what he was seeing Wednesday night as he drove along eastbound in the fast lane of the Artesia (91) Freeway.

To his left, on the other side of the freeway’s concrete divider, a van was traveling in the same direction as he was--passing him, as a matter of fact. Westbound cars desperately veered from the van’s path as the driver hurtled along in the wrong direction, weaving between the emergency shoulder and the adjoining traffic lane.

Chase, alone in an unmarked police car as part of a narcotics surveillance, pulled up parallel with the van, honking his horn, flashing his lights, trying to get the driver to stop. As Chase radioed for the California Highway Patrol, he said in an interview Friday, the van’s driver stared impassively ahead, slowing only slightly.

“I really couldn’t think of any other options” to stop the wrong-way driver, Chase said. “I didn’t have anything at my disposal like emergency lights or a (public address) system . . . and (the driver) seemed so out of it. There just wasn’t anything I could do to stop him.”

Within a minute or two, the van ran head-on into a small car carrying a young San Pedro mother and her two toddlers. All three were critically injured, as was the van’s driver.

Even as he helped to resuscitate one of the youngsters, Chase, 29, knew he had done everything humanly possible to prevent the tragedy. But he also knew it wasn’t the first time he had failed in an effort to avert disaster.

Less than 2 1/2 years ago, Chase saw a woman double-parked at 2 a.m. on a fog-shrouded Torrance thoroughfare, unloading a bicycle from the trunk of her car. He started to make a U-turn to go back and warn her about the danger of her situation.

He was too late. A drunk driver ran the woman down as Chase prepared to make his turn.

Chase was lauded as a hero for applying a tourniquet that saved the woman’s life that night.

He also was sued by the woman’s family, who said he should have stopped sooner, turned faster, or switched on his emergency lights to warn the woman of her peril. Although Chase last week was dropped from that suit, the two-year legal quagmire has left him wondering whether he might find himself in a similar situation.

After the rescue effort was over Wednesday night, Chase said memories of the earlier accident came rushing back to him.

“In the back of my mind I do wonder . . . and worry what might happen now,” he said. “People seem to expect superhuman things of the police sometimes . . . but I had this incredibly helpless feeling, paralleling along with this guy on the freeway and knowing that everything I was trying to do wasn’t having any effect.”

Despite his doubts about how people perceive his efforts, Chase said he will never hesitate to help in a time of emergency.

“You do what you have to do, what you know is right,” Chase said. “You don’t think about what happened before . . . or what might happen later.”