THERE was chaos on the Portmore leg of Highway 2000 yesterday after a woman, who led the police on a car chase from Sir Florizel Glasspole Boulevard in east Kingston, broke the one-way near the toll plaza, forcing other speeding motorists to veer wildly to avoid collision.

"She was being chased from Florizel after she disobeyed a police signal to stop and she drove on the toll road as if she was heading to Portmore. But upon reaching near the toll plaza, she just made a U-turn, broke the one-way and was driving at breakneck speed toward Kingston and into oncoming traffic with the police in pursuit," a source told the Jamaica Observer.

"The pursuit went from Sir Florizel Glasspole Boulevard, on to Michael Manley Boulevard, then onto Port Royal Street then to Marcus Garvey Drive and on to the Portmore toll road, then back to Marcus Garvey Drive. It was frightening," the source added.

Yesterday, an amateur video of the event showed the woman bringing the green sedan to a stop only after it was boxed in by a Jamaica Urban Transit Company bus and several police vehicles on Marcus Garvey Drive, near the Petrojam refinery.

"She was heading east and made another U-turn in the vicinity of Industrial Terrace, and headed back west then she was stopped," the source told the Observer.

However, getting the woman out of the vehicle also proved quite challenging. For about an hour-and-a-half she kept the police team — which included Senior Superintendent Radcliffe Lewis — at bay as she locked herself in the vehicle. Lewis and others pleaded with her, but to no avail.

A man, who declared himself a pastor, is seen in the video praying and begging the woman to surrender herself. But his pleas were ignored.

A woman who claimed to be the motorist's mother, arrived on the scene in a police vehicle and also pleaded unsuccessfully with her to open the car door.

"After all this, she reclined her seat and was there resting in the car, pretending as if she were asleep," the source told the Observer. "And, each time the police tried to get her attention by knocking on the car window, she would take up a Bible from the dashboard and wave it at them."

Growing weary of the stand-off, police called a locksmith who pried open the front passenger door of the vehicle and pulled the woman from the car.

"But she became enraged and they had to restrain her. She began to fight the officers and even pulled a wig from the head of one of the female officers," the source disclosed.

She was forced into a patrol car. However, she continued her resistance before cops succeeded in handcuffing her and, accompanied by her mother, took her to a medical facility for evaluation.

Up to Observer press time, the police had not released her name and no charges had been laid against her.