VALDOSTA — A driver fleeing from police was killed in a wreck Saturday.

Around 2:10 a.m., an officer saw a pickup truck turn from Baytree Road onto Jerry Jones Drive recklessly, a Valdosta Police Department statement said.

As the driver made the turn, he began to accelerate quickly, causing the truck to slide sideways. The officer tried to pursue the truck, which entered opposite lanes of travel and sped up, the statement said.

The officer lost sight of the truck in the 2100 block of Jerry Jones Drive; as the officer came around a curve near South Forty Road, he saw a lot of debris and found the truck had wrecked off the roadway, police said. The Georgia State Patrol said he had hit a culvert and ran into a power pole before overturning.

The driver — named as Ryan Conklin by the state patrol and described as a 23-year-old Missouri man by police— had been ejected from the truck. First aid was rendered until EMTs arrived, but the driver was declared dead at the scene.

The Georgia State Patrol was called in to investigate. No contact was made between Conklin and the police car, the patrol said.