(04-18) 09:13 PDT BERKELEY -- A Berkeley man died early today when he drove his car at speeds topping 80 mph into several parked vehicles in North Berkeley, moments after being thwarted in a possible attempt to kill himself by inhaling carbon monoxide, police said.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, which happened at Yolo and The Alameda shortly before 2 a.m., police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said.

The incident began at 1:50 a.m. when a homeless man flagged down police Sgt. Patty Delaluna near Bancroft Way and Fulton Street in downtown Berkeley, Kusmiss said.

The homeless man told the sergeant that he saw a Subaru parked at the corner with a man sitting inside. There was a tube coming out of the car's exhaust pipe, which the homeless man removed, Kusmiss said.

When Delaluna approached the Subaru, it was "cloudy inside," Kusmiss said. The sergeant tried to talk to the man, but he refused to communicate. Delaluna tried to smash the window to let air inside, but the man took off in his car, Kusmiss said.

Delaluna and Officer Amber Phillips went after the Subaru as it traveled west on Bancroft and then north on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The man drove circuitously, ran stop signs and red lights and drove in the opposite lanes of traffic, Kusmiss said.

The officers stopped following him at 1:55 a.m. out of concern that continuing to do so would prompt him to continue driving unsafely, Kusmiss said. At that point, there had been no police pursuit, just a "slow-speed follow," police said.

The officers last saw the Subaru heading north on Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

At 1:57 a.m., police dispatchers received numerous 911 calls about a crash in North Berkeley. Officers arrived at Yolo and The Alameda - Martin Luther King becomes The Alameda in North Berkeley - and found a "dramatic collision scene," with the Subaru upside down on the hood of a Ford pickup truck, Kusmiss said.

A preliminary investigation showed that the man had crossed from the northbound lanes into the southbound lanes of The Alameda at speeds of at least 80 mph and hit a parked BMW before plowing into a parked Honda.

The Subaru then went airborne for a short time before landing on its roof on top of the pickup truck, Kusmiss said.

No one else was injured.

"This is one of the most dramatic collisions we've seen in a very long time," Kusmiss said. "We may never know whether this part of the story was an intentional act. But what we do know is that he was driving at a fairly high rate of speed."

The police still had a few blocks of MLK closed off and they had surveyors with transits taking measurements at 7:15 this morning. I knew I could count on this tribe to get the scoop.

Thanks!