Iowa Man Arrested for High Speed Chase, Crash

LOCK HAVEN – An Iowa man is behind bars after leading up to a dozen police officers on a Tuesday afternoon high speed chase that began in Lycoming County and ended in a two-car crash at the base of Lock Haven’s Bellefonte Avenue hill.

Alex Bell, 23, of Marion, Iowa, was taken into custody as he exited his car after it came to rest next to Gio’s Hair Salon, this after colliding with a second vehicle in front of McDonald’s. Dennis Eldred of Lock Haven, the driver of the second car, was shaken up but not seriously injured, according to police.

The crash ended a high-speed chase out of Williamsport, onto Route 150, west on Lock Haven’s busy E. Main St., onto Bellefonte Avenue, Bell’s car at that point operating on three tires.

Williamsport police charged Bell with fleeing and attempting to elude police and accident involving personal injury, based on an incident earlier Tuesday. He was returned to Lycoming County for arraignment by police there and remanded to the Lycoming County Prison.

Law enforcement officers from multiple municipalities including township, city and state police were involved in the chase and taking Bell into custody, a sequence that drew a large crowd of onlookers to the accident site.

Gio Montarsi, operator of the hair salon across Spring St. from McDonald’s, was a witness to the end of the collision which ended the high speed chase which came through the downtown.

He said he had just finished with a young customer and they were going out the Bellefonte Avenue front door when the car being pursued “cart-wheeled” by, taking out a street sign before coming to rest on the west side of his building, adjacent to a propane tank. He said he could feel the draft as the car passed by only a handful of feet away.

Montarsi said there was a cloud of white dust from the deployment of airbags in the car being pursued and the one struck which ended up near McDonald’s.

Not knowing what was taking place and observing numerous armed police officers outside, Montarsi said he took his customer and retreated to a backroom, armed with a hand gun, until he was able to determine that the driver of the car had been taken into custody. He lauded the work of police in handling the situation.

Numerous police officers held Bell to the side of a cruiser before placing him inside and removing him from the scene.