Local law enforcement agencies were following and attempting to locate a car out of Collinsville that led police throughout Columbia and rural Monroe and St. Clair counties late Saturday morning.

The suspect vehicle was a blue Chevrolet Cruze with a license plate that returned out of Collinsville, per police radio dispatch transmissions.

Dupo Police Sgt. Mike Sullivan said his department was conducting an Illinois Department of Transportation traffic safety detail on I-255 when this vehicle passed a patrol car at a high rate of speed. Dupo police attempted to get the vehicle to pull over, but it continued south into Columbia.

Police vehicles from Dupo, Columbia and Monroe County were tracking the vehicle as it was seen traveling south in the 800 block of D Road, turning into the Eagle Lakes subdivision and driving through a yard, then continuing on Steppig Road and Gall Road at high speeds to Route 3, then south on Route 3 at a high rate of speed to Route 158. It was then seen on Bluffside Road near the 6900 block of St. Francis Rock Road and was believed to have taken Stemler Road from there.

The pursuit was terminated due to dangerous speeds and the reckless manner in which the suspect vehicle was traveling, Sullivan said.

An Illinois State Police Emergency Radio Network alert was broadcast for neighboring agencies to be on the lookout at that point.

Dupo police contacted the Collinsville Police Department for information on the vehicle owner, after which officers from that department were able to reach a woman and her son, who typically drives the car. The son, a juvenile, gave police the name of an O’Fallon teen who was driving the car with his permission.

That person, Thomas C. Kish, 18, is on a felony hold for pending charges of aggravated fleeing and eluding police.

There may be a connection to another case in Madison County, Sullivan added.