Man fleeing Yosemite in stolen car goes on wild ride before crash in mountains, CHP says

A 40-year-old man from Los Angeles was arrested Wednesday after a wild sequence of events that started in Yosemite in an allegedly stolen car and ended with a crash in a second stolen vehicle about 20 miles south of the national park.

The California Highway Patrol in Oakhurst said Thursday it was alerted at 2:41 Wednesday to “be on the lookout” for a Kia Soul after it had been pursued within the national park by park rangers. The driver reportedly had been driving recklessly in the park, including throwing beer cans out of the window, CHP said.

Soon after, officers got reports that a Kia had crashed in Fish Camp on White Chief Mountain Road near Tenaya Lodge, about three miles south of Yosemite’s southern entrance on Highway 41, and that the man fled on a bicycle.

The man then allegedly carjacked a Kia Optima at Tenaya Lodge and fled again on Highway 41 about 15 miles south to the mountain community of Oakhurst. That’s where a Tesla sedan came upon the Optima going slowly on the right-hand shoulder of the highway.

As the Tesla passed the Kia, the driver of the Kia accelerated and began intentionally crashing into the rear of the Tesla, CHP said.

The driver of the Tesla tried to get away from the Kia, but the Kia driver continued to intentionally crash into the rear sides of the Tesla through the town. Cameras on the Tesla captured the wild sequence, CHP said.

A deputy with the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office had been alerted of the situation and intercepted the Kia and Tesla on Highway 41 south of Highway 49 in the vicinity of Victoria Lane while the Kia was still intentionally crashing into the Tesla.

The deputy activated his lights and siren, and a pursuit started before the driver of the Kia eventually crashed into a fence in the vicinity of Maddie Fhy Road and was taken into custody.

He was booked into Mariposa County jail on numerous charges, CHP said.

In a separate incident in July, a man from La Habra in Southern California was killed in a crash on Highway 41 after he fled Yosemite following a reckless driving incident. The head-on crash near the Road 222 turnoff to Bass Lake also injured four occupants of two other vehicles.