South Whitehall Man Charged After Car Chase

A South Whitehall Township man is in a heap of trouble after he led Bethlehem police on a chase from south Bethlehem up Route 378 after allegedly failing to obey an order to stop from the city’s police commissioner himself early Friday morning.

When he arrived at his home at 2331 Wehr Mill Road, Matthew Blose, 21, had Pennsylvania State Police waiting for him. There they allegedly found him with an open beverage container and a small amount of marijuana in his car, police said.

The trouble for Blose started at nearly 2:30 a.m. Friday morning when he was observed making an erratic driving maneuver at the corner of Third and Webster streets in the Southside, nearly striking a police bicycle officer in the process, police said.

Police Commissioner Stuart Bedics, who happened to be on the scene, then gave Blose an order to stop, which the suspect deliberately disobeyed and ignored, police said. Blose then was stopped by police, briefly, at Third and New streets, before he drove off again, this time up Route 378, police said.

Marked police cruisers attempted to stop Blose to no avail as he was last seen on Airport Road.

Blose was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, fleeing and eluding police, possession of a small amount of marijuana, reckless driving, careless driving and numerous other driving related charges.