PORTLAND (AP) – A man who was running from police after violating his parole found out the hard way that snowplows can scoop up more than winter weather.

Paul Connell, 48, of Saco, was running from police after leading them on a car chase that began in Old Orchard Beach and ended in Scarborough when a public works employee driving a city plow truck helped end the pursuit.

The chase started Wednesday morning when an officer pulled Connell over for an expired inspection sticker. He sped off when the officer began a license check.

Police chased Connell along U.S. Route 1. Connell then turned off of the highway and drove over spikes police had set to puncture his tires. He continued driving after passing over the spikes and collided with a school bus.

Connell got out and started running down the highway, police said. Witnesses said Connell ran into the plow while watching the police chasing him on foot.

Elwood Mitchell, who was driving a Scarborough Public Works Department plow truck, had stopped at the intersection and saw police chasing Connell on foot.

He passed Connell and police and pulled over to the side of the road, lowering his truck’s side plow blade across the sidewalk. To his left was the truck, to his right a thick brush. The plow was straight ahead. Connell had no place to run.

Mitchell, a 30-year public works employee and son of the department’s former director, said the chase seemed like something he had seen on television.

Mitchell said he expected police to catch Connell, but believed his plow saved the officers some work.

“I figured I would speed up the process,” he said.

Connell was being held Thursday in York County Jail.