On Christmas morning, while the city of Ceres slept, one Honda Accord driver decided to turn the quiet streets into a race track, leading to a high-speed chase that sparked enough concern for officers to call off the pursuit for safety’s sake. In a post from the Ceres Police Department’s Facebook page, the details emerged of an early morning incident on December 25, where a white Honda Accord sped through two red lights, catching the eye of Officer Houser on patrol at Hatch Road and Herndon Road.
Describing the chase, the post stated, “Officer Houser activated his emergency lights to initiate a traffic enforcement stop,” but the Honda driver had other plans and floored it towards State Route 99. Then, ducking into downtown Modesto, it whipped through red lights—weaving a potentially deadly needle of velocity and risk, before officers elected to put an end to the chase due to escalating danger to the public. The authorities later secured judicial authorization for a vehicle seizure, a move sanctified by California Vehicle Code section 14602.7, which the officers hoped might bring a measure of justice and perhaps deterrence…