Innocent Driver Talks About Hitting Chase Suspect

Last Updated: Thu, Nov 20th, 2008

A suspected child molester is lucky to be alive after being chased by police. Gary Cervantes ended up ditching his car along a San Diego freeway and taking off on foot, running right into the path of a moving car. News 8 spoke with the driver behind the wheel of that car. It's an image private taxi driver Ed Stanton says he will remember for a long time. The northern San Diego county resident had no warning he would violently end a police pursuit of a child molestation suspect right in the middle of Friday night rush hour. "I was on my way to the San Diego Airport to pick up a passenger, and I actually saw some red and blue lights on the other side of the freeway. I just heard this thump thump thump, and that was it," Stanton said. "So boom, he hit me and rolled and I just stopped right there in the lane I was in. I was in the number 2 lane," he said. The 63-year-old says he was going at least 45 miles an hour when he struck 42-year-old Gary Cervantes. The suspect, also from northern San Diego County, faces seven child molestation counts. He tried to flee from authorities during a three-freeway chase that was seen on live television. "He tried to kind of leap up over the car, but he couldn't and that's when he smacked into my windshield," Stanton said. Moments after the crash, Stanton, who stayed inside his Lincoln Towncar, watched police arrest Cervantes. "I heard him groaning on the freeway, on the ground, so I knew I hadn't killed him, and the police as they were handcuffing him, he started screaming real loud," Stanton said. "At the time that he hit, the whole roof was caved in," he added. Stanton was not hurt in the incident, but he has reflections about it. "I'm sorry that he did what he did. I felt he should have just stopped, you know, and taken the consequences, but I was very glad that I hadn't killed him," he said. Cervantes suffered minor injuries in the incident. He is being held on $370,000 bail, and is scheduled to be arraigned this week on multiple molestation charges, as well as two charges of evading police.

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