A high-speed police chase that began in Marshalltown, Iowa, turned into a terrifying near-miss for one family traveling along Highway 30 — and their firsthand account reveals just how quickly an ordinary drive can become a life-or-death moment. Two people ultimately died when the pursued vehicle crashed, but for a University of Iowa student and his family, the outcome was far narrower than it could have been.
Jack Spence, 19, was driving his family home to Nevada, Iowa, along Highway 30 when they found themselves in the path of a fleeing vehicle. According to Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla, who spoke with KCCI, the pursuit began in Marshalltown after a county deputy conducted a traffic stop. The chase continued across multiple counties and ended in a crash southwest of Cedar Rapids.
The first sign something was wrong came when Spence spotted law enforcement on the roadside.
“We saw a couple police officers to the side with the little strips that they throw out to stop people,”
he said, referring to spike strips deployed in an attempt to stop the fleeing driver.
Moments later, the situation escalated rapidly. More than ten police cruisers came roaring eastbound past the family’s vehicle. Jack’s grandmother, Beth Wagner, was seated in the passenger seat and remembers the mounting tension clearly.
“I turned to him and his mom as it was getting like more and more police cars, like more than 10. I said, ‘Well, you guys, if we die, I love you.’ And it was kind of a joke. They go, ‘I love you too,'”
Wagner recalled.
What happened next was no joke. The vehicle being chased by police suddenly appeared in their lane — heading directly toward them in oncoming traffic.
“All of a sudden, the car was in the wrong lane, which was our lane,”
Wagner said.
Spence reacted quickly, steering the vehicle onto the shoulder and avoiding what could have been a fatal collision. The family pulled over as the gravity of the moment set in.
“It’s indescribable, the experience of being in that van with a car coming straight for you in the wrong lane, and the cars in front of us, like, trying to figure out what to do,”
Wagner said.
Highway camera footage captured police making contact with the pursued vehicle before it crashed. An Iowa State Patrol crash report confirms that two people were killed. Authorities are continuing to investigate. For more on the crash itself, see the ongoing investigation into the deadly crash after the chase on Highway 30.
For Wagner, the experience left a lasting impression about how unpredictable life can be.
“It was a really surreal experience; I mean, we get to live another day,”
she said.