MARYSVILLE — A white Camaro sped north on 27th Avenue NE Wednesday afternoon, followed by a State Patrol cruiser with its lights flashing.
A trooper standing alongside the road tossed a nylon bag of Stop Sticks across the road. As the car approached, the trooper jerked a rope and pulled the bag across the northbound lane.
The car ran over the nylon bag with a loud popping sound, and the car immediately began to slow as air hissed out of three spiked tires. The car came to a stop in about a quarter-mile.
The chase wasn’t a real pursuit but a demonstration by troopers of a new tool to help stop pursuits quickly and safely.
Using $45,000 of a grant from the Tulalip Tribes last year, the patrol ordered 110 Stop Sticks — enough for every trooper in District 7, which includes Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom, Island and San Juan counties. District 7 is the only district in the state in which all troopers are equipped with the devices.
"It’s all about ending pursuits fast before somebody crashes and gets hurt," Trooper Lance Ramsay said.
Within a week after the patrol passed out the devices in February, they were used twice. Since then, they’ve been used about a half-dozen times, all with immediate results in safely stopping cars, Ramsay said.
"They’re one of the best tools we have in our cars," he said.
Stop Sticks are made of 36 Teflon-coated steel quills with spikes formed in a triangle and packed inside a foam coating in a triangular polypropylene box. Three segments are slid inside a nylon bag, which has an 80-foot cord attached. The cord allows officers to pull the bag out of the way of other vehicles.
The steel spikes are hollow and have pointed tips that fall off after they penetrate a tire, allowing air to escape steadily to slow the car safely, troopers said.
District 7 troopers used the Stop Sticks to safely stop a man who allegedly had kidnapped a Mercer Island girl and held her for ransom, and a Florida fugitive who was armed and considered dangerous. In both cases, the suspects had been in long pursuits in other counties, but were quickly stopped here.
"I can almost guarantee that this is going to eliminate long pursuits" in this district, Ramsay said. "We’re starting it here, but we hope it will spread across the state."
Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.
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