At the end of the nearly 20-minute chase, a 43-year-old Hopewell woman was charged with drunken driving, and a 41-year-old Bloomingdale woman found herself injured and her car damaged from numerous collisions.
The incident began shortly before 8 p.m. April 12 when Deidre N. Levine, driving a silver 2005 Kia, drove into the back of a black Volkswagen bug that was stopped at the light at Cranbury and Fern roads, police said. Levine sped away after the collision, but the victim, Cheryl A. Grampp, followed and tried to take down Levine’s license plate number.
When Grampp, reportedly a former drag racer, pulled up alongside Levine near the East Brunswick post office, Levine swerved and struck Grampp’s car a second time, police said. Grampp then got in front of Levine, forcing her to stop on the right shoulder of the road. Levine backed up and started to go around Grampp’s car on the left side, but Grampp drove onto Cranbury Road, stopping Levine’s car as well as all other traffic.
At that point, Levine accelerated into Grampp’s car, pushed it out of the way and sped off, with Grampp in pursuit. It was around this time that police said they began to receive 911 calls, the first of about six that would come in from witnesses at various locations.
The two cars continued on Cranbury Road, with Grampp looking for her cell phone, which had been knocked to the floor during the initial collision. Levine turned onto Henley Drive and shut off her headlights, but Grampp pulled alongside her again, prompting Levine to “repeatedly ram” Grampp’s car as the two drove, according to a police report.
When Levine pulled into a parking stall on McDowell Drive, in the Society Hill development, Grampp parked behind her to stop her from exiting the stall. As Grampp yelled for residents to call the police, Levine put her car in reverse and again struck the Volkswagen. Levine then drove over a curb, sidewalk and grass to exit the parking stall.
Both vehicles then raced down Village Drive to New Brunswick Avenue, then onto Old Stage Road and right onto Helmetta Boulevard. At the intersection with Cranbury Road, Grampp was again able to get in front of Levine and cause her to stop. But Levine backed up and struck a silver 2005 Mercedes Benz driven by Hanna A. Ayad, 45, of East Brunswick. Neither Ayad nor her daughter, who was in the back seat, was injured.
It was at this point that Patrolman David Velez, being guided by a witness who was on the phone with the police, approached the intersection and saw Levine’s and Grampp’s vehicles speed away, this time onto Dunhams Corner Road. Velez was able to pull over both cars near Crystal Springs Aquatic Center at 8:19 p.m.
Levine was charged with aggravated assault with a vehicle, driving while intoxicated, refusal to submit to a breath test analysis, leaving the scene and failing to report an accident, and reckless driving. She was initially being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Center, North Brunswick, in lieu of $1,500 bail. Grampp, who told police Levine struck her vehicle more than 20 times, was treated for neck and back pain at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick.
During the course of the chase, police had no reason to believe any of the calls coming in about car accidents were related, though they began to suspect that was the case during the course of the 16-minute series of events.
Police received reports from witnesses, first on Cranbury Road, then on McDowell Drive, New Brunswick Avenue, Old Stage Road and Helmetta Boulevard. With each, police would send a different officer out to investigate.
“After we got the calls from McDowell Drive, and then Rues and New Brunswick, we started to get the idea that maybe this was all the same incident, but we didn’t know yet,” East Brunswick Police Lt. Russell MacArthur said.
While Grampp was not charged with any wrongdoing, MacArthur said police would not condone her decision to keep up the chase with the other driver.
“I wouldn’t suggest or condone somebody doing that,” he said. “To get a license plate number so that police can follow up and try to apprehend the person later, I can understand that.”