A man suspected of attempted murder who was stopped for a traffic violation in Joppatowne yesterday afternoon led state troopers on a wild chase that ended when he crashed his pickup truck near Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, police said.

The pursuit began about 4:45 p.m. when Ronald Kirchner tried to flee a trooper who was about to arrest him after checking Kirchner's driver's license and learning that he was wanted on a warrant for attempted murder in Baltimore, police said.

Details of the attempted-murder warrant were not available last night.

Police say Kirchner, 33, of the 1600 block of Leslie Road in Dundalk, struck a pedestrian with his truck as he fled. The man, who had approached to assist the trooper, suffered minor injuries to his legs but refused medical treatment, said state police Sgt. William Willis.

During the chase, which took place along Route 40, White Marsh Boulevard and Interstate 95, the suspect ran red lights and caused several minor accidents, police said. In one of them, a car sideswiped the pursuing trooper's car at Route 40 and Joppa Farm Road. The driver of the car was taken to Harford Memorial Hospital with minor injuries.

The suspect drove recklessly, sometimes going onto road shoulders to pass cars and swerving from lane to lane to evade police, Willis said. At one point, the truck swerved into a trooper's vehicle, striking it on the driver's side.

"People were sliding all over the place to avoid him," Willis said. On Interstate 95, the suspect apparently lost control of the pickup, which ricocheted off the concrete dividers on both sides of the highway and sent a load of tools and other objects flying out of the truck, he said.

The chase ended about 20 minutes later, when the truck turned onto Kane Street, a residential street off Eastern Avenue, and crashed into a fence, police said.