Dashcam footage has captured the shocking moment criminals rammed into a police car several times to escape pursuit.
The smash appears in tonight’s episode of Traffic Cops, a show about crime on Britain’s roads which airs on Mondays on Channel 5 at 9pm.
In a clip shared ahead of the show, which was filmed near Scarborough, a stolen white van can be seen speeding up in reverse towards the officer’s car during a car chase.
The move doesn’t deter the officers, who continue pursuing the criminals.
As the chase goes on, the drivers of the van get increasingly desperate and ram the police vehicle again, going as far as damaging their own vehicle in their attempt to escape justice.
The clip follows officers Joe and Mark, who were in pursuit of the van which had been reported stolen.
‘He’s obviously going through a thought process as to “I can either stop and hold my hands up and throw my keys out of the window, or I can take it up a level”,’ Mark says as he drives.
As the clip progresses, the white van begins to reverse and to approach the police car at speed.
‘Vehicle is reversing attempting to ram me,’ Mark can be heard saying on his police radio.
As he does, the white van crashes into his vehicle with a loud bang, and repeats the aggressive assault several times.
The officer explains that traffic cops are used to being rammed, as it’s a popular tactic among criminals.
‘That’s a tactic that people will use in a pursuit, to try and reverse ram the following police vehicle,’ he says.
‘Because if they do it sufficiently to disable our car, either by activating the airbags or causing some damage, that takes you out of the pursuit then, so gives them a greater chance to escape,’ he adds.
The Channel 5 show Traffic Cops, airing tonight at 9pm, captured the shocking moment a stolen white van rams itself into a police car during a chase near Scarborough
As the thieves get more desperate, the police officers chasing are put at greater risk during the pursuit
As the police car stops by the side of the road, the camera captures the van driver ramming into it several times.
‘Forty-one being rammed by the subject vehicle. Standby,’ Mark says on the radio.
Mark’s colleague Joe is now leading the chase, with Mark driving behind him.
‘At this point we are going sort of 80mph, and the road layout is not great, it’s quite bendy and there’s not great deal of view ahead,’ Joe explains.
‘Luckily there isn’t that much traffic on the roads. I’m confident it’s still safe for me to continue,’ he adds.
The police officers can be heard telling their radio that the van is speeding at 70mph on a road limited to 40, approaching a village, posing a potential threat to pedestrians.
As the van enters the village and the police seems to be closing in on him, the driver panics and starts reversing again to ram itself into Joe’s car.
Joe is taken aback by the attack, saying: ‘it’s shocking, it took me by surprise really. It’s all self-preservation and how they can cover their tracks and get away with it,’ he says.
The police officer continues: ‘I’m a traffic cop but I also have days off. I have a family,’ he says.
As the van violently rams itself into Joe’s police car, it manages to damage the vehicle enough that the copper has to stop his pursuit.
‘I’m out, he’s disabled my vehicle,’ Joe can be heard saying on the radio.
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