Discover Top American-Made Products!
Support local craftsmanship with these high-quality, American-made items—shop now on Amazon!
Shop NowThe highways across Utah are generally flat, straight and almost impossible not to speed along. Their highway department pragmatically posts the speed limit at 80 miles an hour. Any lower would be a waste of time for cops in court because that’s a generally reasonable speed for conditions. When you get clocked doing more than 100 miles an hour above that, police take notice. That’s a ticket your lawyer’s never going to be able to beat in court. The three pound bag of magic mushrooms they found after the chase was over is only an extra added bonus.
Flying through Utah
Two men in a Dodge Charger weren’t driving fast through Utah, they were flying low. When a Highway Patrol trooper in Sevier County first noticed them, they were moving at “roughly 166 miles per hour on I-70.”
He couldn’t run the plate because there wasn’t one attached. Once he started after them, they accelerated. Their state police are also equipped with Chargers so it should have been a fair race.
Ignoring the lights and sirens, “the vehicle reached the junction of I-70 and I-15 and continued southbound towards Beaver County.” That was Thursday night, October 17.
The rabbits evaded Utah authorities for awhile, until spotted again by another trooper. He tried to make a traffic stop. It was a good try.
“The vehicle took exit 112 southbound on I-15 towards Beaver Utah.”
The Charger “moved to the shoulder of the road, passed a vehicle and reached a speed of 189 miles per hour in an 80 mile per hour zone,” the police reports note.
Right through town
With Highway Patrol in hot pursuit, “the vehicle exited I-15 at exit 109 in Beaver City. The vehicle went left and traveled to Beaver, Utah.” He came through town like he was playing death race 2000. It’s a good thing there weren’t any slow moving pedestrians at the time.
“The vehicle was estimated to be traveling approximately 70 miles per hour on Main Street.” Cops weren’t allowed to chase the fugitive under those circumstances. “The pursuit was terminated when the vehicle left the freeway.”
It took law enforcement a while to find them again. “A Beaver County deputy on Route 21 located the Dodge Charger and tried to initiate a traffic stop, where it’s alleged the vehicle took off again. The vehicle also fled from officers on Route 130 towards Cedar City.”
All Utah state police could do is keep following and hope it would run out of gas soon. “The vehicle reached speeds of nearly 110 miles per hour on Route 130. After another attempted traffic stop, two different officers used stop sticks to deflate the tires of the suspect vehicle.” It kept moving.
“The vehicle entered Enoch City and turned right onto Thoroughbred Lane where officers used a PIT maneuver to stop the vehicle.” Crashing did the trick. The driver turned out to be Cristian Luna. His passenger is Ethan Mason. Luna “reportedly threw an AR-style rifle over a fence.” Officers soon came up with “a white plastic sack” with three pounds of magic mushrooms inside.
“Based on my training and experience in drug investigations I believe that this would be a distributable amount of an illegal controlled substance,” the trooper wrote. It wasn’t that long ago that Utah would sentence you to hard time for possession of a single joint. “During a search of the vehicle, two mason jars of marijuana were located. Scales, baggies, and addition smaller mason jars were located.” Both Luna and Mason are being held in the Iron County Jail on numerous felony charges “related to evading law enforcement and possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance.“
