Woman suffering “mental health episode” arrested following Mansfield car crash

Police say during her arrest - on Friday at about 7am - the 29-year-old woman also struck and racially-abused an officer.

The Abbott Road crash came after she failed to stop for police following reports she was seen throwing hand sanitiser in a supermarket and then colliding with bins in her vehicle.

Speaking about the incident Mansfield response sergeant Joseph Hall said: "We saw a car in Abbott Road and we had to make the decision not to pursue due to the high-risk nature of the circumstances and the information we'd received about the driver behaving erratically.

"Luckily the incident was brought to a safe conclusion when the vehicle came to a stop after crashing and no one was harmed.

"We believe the arrested woman is suffering a mental health episode and was possibly under the influence of drugs but this was a really serious incident that could have had far worse consequences.

"We also can't tolerate abuse of our officers both physically and verbally as they carry out their daily job which is to keep our communities safe.

"To use racist comments is absolutely unacceptable and we have no place for racism in society."

She was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and failing to stop for police, suspicion of racially aggravated common assault and assault by beating an emergency worker.

On Friday police said the woman remained in custody while enquiries continue.

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