A Chicago woman faces 11 felony and misdemeanor charges after police said she allegedly crashed a stolen Jeep on Interstate 94 while trying to escape Saturday from police near Chesterton.

Around noon Saturday, Indiana State Police troopers assigned to the All Crimes Policing Team were working on I-94 near the 32-mile marker, about 5 miles east of the Indiana 49 exit to Chesterton, according to a release from Sgt. Glen Fifield, public information officer for the Lowell District.

A trooper observed a black Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT traveling at 83 mph in an area with a posted 70 mph speed limit, according to police. Police initiated a traffic stop and the driver initially pulled over near the 31-mile marker.

As the trooper stopped the vehicle, he saw that the driver never placed the Jeep in park and kept her foot on the brake. The trooper stood outside of his patrol car, giving verbal commands for the driver to put the vehicle in park and to lower the window, a release said.

The Jeep then accelerated from the traffic stop at a high rate of speed, police said, and the trooper initiated a short pursuit but lost sight of the vehicle after a mile.

Another trooper had been observing traffic on I-94 and was parked in the turnaround at the 29.9-mile marker when he was alerted about the Jeep. The trooper was retrieving stop sticks from his trunk when the Jeep reportedly was observe traveling at a high rate of speed along the inside shoulder.

The driver of the Jeep swerved to the right to avoid hitting the police car and the trooper retrieving the stop sticks from the trunk ran to take cover anticipating a crash with his parked police car.

Instead, the Jeep rear-ended a 2019 Kia Optima that also was traveling westbound, police said.

After the initial impact, the driver of the Jeep continued to flee westbound at a reduced rate of speed. Troopers were able to catch up to the vehicle and continued to follow the Jeep until it eventually stopped at the 29-mile marker because of damage sustained in the crash, police said.

Officers ordered the driver out of the Jeep but the driver reportedly refused to exit the vehicle for several minutes, a release said. The driver eventually complied and rolled down a window. After being ordered to exit the Jeep, the driver was taken into custody and transported without incident to Porter County Jail.

Police said a check on the Jeep showed it was reported stolen in Illinois in April.

The driver, 24, who is not being identified because she has not been formally charged, faces three felony charges, including theft of a vehicle with a value of $50,000, theft of a vehicle and resisting law enforcement with a vehicle.

She also faces preliminary misdemeanor charges of theft; resisting law enforcement; leaving the scene of an injury crash (two counts); reckless driving causing injury (two counts); aggressive driving; criminal recklessness; reckless driving as a class B misdemeanor; and reckless driving as a class C misdemeanor (two counts).

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter.