Woman leads police on high-speed chase through 3 counties driving wrong way on freeway

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A wrong-way driver led police on a harrowing chase up Highway 59 through Harris, Montgomery and Liberty counties.

Authorities said the chase reached speeds of up to 120 miles per hour.

The driver was first spotted at Townsend going northbound in the southbound feeder lanes of Highway 59. She kept driving north, nearly causing several wrecks in a chase that covered 20 miles, police said.

It all started after 7 p.m. Thursday when the female driver was seen going the wrong way on the feeder road.

She cut off an SUV coming southbound, causing a driver to flip his vehicle but he is OK.

Police said she got onto Highway 59 and the chase was on.

The woman hit several construction barrels, sending one of them flying into the middle of the roadway.

Drivers were making frantic calls to 911 about the wrong-way vehicle but by this time, a Montgomery County deputy was behind her with his lights flashing.

As the two cars continued up Highway 59, the deputy said he was passing by vehicles with just inches to spare.

One driver told police that if he had not pulled over, the woman would have hit him head-on.

The chase finally ended near Morgan's Cemetery Road when the woman stopped and police took her into custody at gunpoint.

One officer said in his 34 years in law enforcement, he had never seen anything like this chase and that he even got down on his knees after it was over.

Police are investigating whether the wrong-way driver was under the influence.