Suspect Identified, Innocent Victim Recovers After Horrible Stolen Truck-SUV Crash

PASADENA (CBSLA) --  The suspect who stole a work truck and then led police on a high-speed pursuit that ended when the truck t-boned a woman driving an SUV Thursday has been identified.

The victim, miraculously suffered no broken bones, and is now home and recovering, reports CBS2/KCAL9 reporter Randy Paige.

The woman will have a painful recovery.

The work truck was stolen in Downey. The owner was able to track it via GPS.

Police first found the suspect driving at the intersection of Gage and Eastern in Bell Gardens.

The dangerous pursuit lasted nearly an hour.

The suspect is identified as a 51-year-old self-admitted gang member. He was on probation for assault and wanted for a probation violation.

He drove recklessly, at excessive speeds, jumped into on-coming traffic, drove on the wrong side of the roads, scraped a number of cars squeezing between them in traffic, flied over medians, drove on sidewalks and nearly missed one car after another.

The suspect -- identified as Fernando Frenes -- even narrowly missed being hit by a train. He barreled through signal arms and missed the train by about five seconds.

It all came to an end in Pasadena.

While Frenes was being taken into custody, the woman he broadsided was still trapped inside her vehicle.

Pasadena firefighters said it took them 14 minutes to extricate the woman using the Jaws of Life.

They brought the woman to a waiting ambulance and rushed her to Huntington Memorial Hospital.

Frenes remains in custody facing charges of grand theft auto, evading officers, and causing great bodily injury along with his probation violation.

Paige stopped by the victim's residence. The woman's son told Paige his mother was recovering but wasn't up to talking about her ordeal. He said she was released from the hospital around 5:30 Friday morning.