BEAVER COUNTY, Utah, July 21, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A speeder led police on a 61 mile high-speed chase that ended when she pulled over and surrendered to officers.
But the incident on Interstate 15 barely lasted a half-hour since speeds regularly topped 120 mph throughout, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.
The adventure began just after 7 p.m. Friday at milepost 103 in Beaver County when a UHP Trooper attempted to pull over a northbound black Honda Accord for speeding, but the driver instead accelerated, said Sgt. Mike Gordon, weekend UHP public information officer.
At one point, traffic spikes were deployed by local police, but did not slow the woman driving. The chase ended at milepost 164 in Millard County where the driver was taken into custody.
Gordon said there was no other vehicle involvement during the chase and the driver was the sole occupant of the Honda. Booked into the Beaver County Jail, he said she faces likely charges of evading police, reckless driving, and excessive speed.
He also said there was no immediate indication of the suspect’s motivation for a straight-line attempt to outrun officers in open country that never left the interstate. No additional identity information was available.
As to whether it was possible in modern times that someone might not be aware police cruisers come with radios allowing officers to talk to each other, Gordon said, “I guess you never know.”
The active online police scanner group Southern Utah Emergency Responses and Incidents was tracking the goings on, posting speeds almost in real time by mile marker and time-of-day, logging 124 mph several times as velocity stayed in the 120 mph range, only once ebbing to 100 mph.
The group’s starting and ending coordinates of mileposts 103 and 164 matched UHP’s. Gordon couldn’t confirm those findings, but said officers typically radio such information to dispatchers during a chase.
