A DRUG crazed car thief brought terror to Bolton's roads as he tried to escape from the police in a high speed 10 mile race through the town.

And today the man was on the run after escaping from a hospital ward.

The thief - a 31-year-old disqualified driver - reached speeds of up to 120mph in 17 minutes of madness.

The stolen MG Maestro rammed a car being driven by a pregnant woman and only the quick reactions of a Horwich father saved the lives of his family in narrowly averting a head-on crash in a one-way street. A police officer said many other motorists had had fortunate escapes. He said : "The driver didn't seem to care what he was doing. How no one was seriously injured, let alone killed, I'll never know."

Today the man responsible for the mayhem was on the run after escaping from Bolton Royal Infirmary where he had been taken after his arrest. Police officers had taken the man - who was suffering from amphetamine abuse - to hospital on the advice of a police doctor. The car which was pursued had been reported stolen on Friday night by its owner Steven Ashcroft.

Remarkably Mr Ashcroft and his wife, Carol, discovered their car the next day parked in Athlone Avenue on the Oldhams Estate as they were searching for it.

But as Mr Ashcroft, a 44-year-old driver, of Westminster Road, Sharples, rang the police from a nearby phone box the car was driven off by a man who emerged from a nearby house.

Mrs Ashcroft, 43, spotted their silver coloured D registration Maestro being driven off and gave chase before her husband could join her. Unfortunately she lost the thief in heavy traffic on Moss Bank Way but once again she spotted the driver further down the road after the thief had called in at a local garage - to check the car's tyre pressures. She contacted the police and minutes later a police patrol spotted the car being driven at high speed in Avenue Street.

During the next 17 minutes the thief caused mayhem on roads throughout Bolton.

The two-litre car was driven towards Bolton town centre where, at the Vernon Street junction with St George's Road, it rammed a Ford Sierra being driven by mum-to-be Lindsay Pennington.

Mrs Pennington, of Horace Street, Bolton, suffered shock but escaped serious injury. Her eight-year-old daughter, Emma, a front seat passenger, was badly shaken.

The stolen car was then driven down Dawson Lane and Chorley Street onto White Lion Brow, on the outskirts of the town centre, before racing past other cars and careering through road junctions and traffic lights at speeds of up to 120mph along Wigan Road and Beaumont Road. Police officers were forced to break off the pursuit briefly as the Maestro was driven up a one-way street on to Chorley New Road.

Only the quick reactions of another driver, Stephen Baron of Lever Park Avenue, Horwich, averted a tragedy when the Maestro nearly rammed him head-on.

Mr Baron and his family were uninjured.

The car, which was being tracked by the police helicopter, zig-zagged along Tudor Avenue, Park Road and on to Mayor Street where the driver was cornered by the police. The driver surrendered without a struggle.

Recovering at home today Mrs Pennington, who is expecting a baby in a week, said: "Emma and I are lucky to be alive. It could easily have been a very different story."

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