A woman driving erratically and the wrong way on Interstate 10 in Marana was taken into custody Friday after she ran over a state trooperβs foot.
No other injuries occurred during the incident, which covered several miles on I-10 between Cortaro and Twin Peaks roads, said Sgt. Chris Warren, a Marana Police Department spokesman.
The woman, Karie Laflamme, 53, of Tucson, was taken to a hospital by Northwest Fire District paramedics for evaluation. She was later released from the hospital and booked into the Pima County jail on suspicion of aggravated assault of a police officer and aggravated assault of a police officer with a weapon, Warren said.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper also was taken to a hospital and later released with non-serious injuries.
About a dozen Marana police and DPS troopers tried to stop the woman on the interstate before she caused a wreck, Warren said. He said Laflamme was driving a dark-blue Ford Escape Hybrid.
DPS officers began receiving reports at 9 a.m. about a reckless driver in an SUV driving on I-10 near downtown βwith her door open, and that she kept stopping and then going on the interstate,β Warren said.
About 12:30 p.m., Marana police received a 911 call reporting an SUV headed the wrong way on the frontage road on the west side of the freeway between Ina and Cortaro roads.
Marana officers began looking for the vehicle, and then received another call that the SUV had gotten onto I-10 at Cortaro and was traveling west in the eastbound lanes, Warren said.
Officers and state troopers located the vehicle and tried to get the woman to stop, but she continued for about a mile before stopping in the emergency median lane. A state trooper approached the vehicle and told the woman numerous times to get out of the SUV, but she refused and drove away at a high rate of speed, running over the trooperβs foot, said Warren.
The incident ended when the woman stopped north of Twin Peaks in the median lane and officers were able to take her into custody, Warren said.
Police were working to determine any motives, Warren said.
