Alcohol appears to be a factor in a police chase that ended with a crash in Berrien County.

Sheriff’s deputies were on a traffic stop around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 15, on M-139 near Empire in Benton Township.

The deputies were inside their patrol vehicle when a car came up from behind them, slammed on the brakes and came to a screeching halt, almost hitting the marked patrol vehicle with emergency lights activated.

The deputies exited the vehicle and told the driver, a 40-year-old man from Benton Harbor, to stop.

The driver then fled the area.  

Deputies tried to stop the vehicle, but the vehicle continued to flee.  

The vehicle then ran the stoplight at Main and Line Streeets, but lost control on Pine.

The suspect vehicle then hit parked vehicles in a driveway and the suspect vehicle then hit a tree in the 200 block of Pine.  

The Benton Harbor Department of Public Safety had to assist in extrication of the suspect.

The suspect was then taken by Medic 1 ambulance to Spectrum Lakeland Health in St. Joseph.