A FREE ride home turned into a nightmare for a coffee shop assistant when his colleague stepped on the accelerator and ran a roadblock, triggering a police chase.

With the police in hot pursuit in the early hours of the morning yesterday, the speeding driver apparently panicked and lost control of the van, which veered off the road and crashed into a carpark barrier and other vehicles in Ang Mo Kio.

The driver slipped out of the car and fled. He is still on the run, said police last night.

His passenger, 26, who refused to give his name, said he was too shocked to move.

"I kept telling him to stop, but he just ignored me," he told The Straits Times yesterday, after he had given a police statement.

The police said the accident happened at about 12.45am.

The coffee shop assistant said it was after his first day at work, and his colleague, who is in his 30s, had offered him a ride home in the com- pany van. Both were working at a coffee shop along Changi Road.

The journey went smoothly until the vehicle was flagged down at a roadblock set up by the Traffic Police along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, he added.

Instead of stopping, the driver sped on, and a police motorcycle gave chase.

The driver turned into Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 before he apparently lost control at the junction leading into Ang Mo Kio Street 12.

The van mounted the kerb and travelled on the grass verge for about 15m before it slammed into a carpark barrier, a car and a pick-up just outside the 24-hour McDonald's outlet at Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West.

The impact was so great that the barrier broke and a road sign was left tilted at 45 degrees.

The driver left the vehicle and disappeared into the nearby park just as the police officers closed in on him.

The passenger, who escaped with light injuries, had returned to work yesterday evening.

The crash stunned residents, including the passenger's aunt and niece, who had just returned home from Geylang Serai when they saw the wreck.

They were even more shocked to see their relative emerging from the van, they said.

Police have identified the driver. It is not clear why the man failed to stop at the roadblock.