ST. GEORGE —A pursuit that reached triple-digit speeds on southbound Interstate 15 Sunday morning ended in an arrest after the motorcyclist “gave up” and was pulled over in Washington City, police said.
Shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper heading south on I-15, just north of the Black Ridge Exit, noticed a motorcycle approaching from behind at a high rate of speed.
According to charging documents filed with the court, the motorcyclist was traveling at an estimated 110 mph. When the trooper clocked the rider’s speed on radar near mile marker 36, the motorcycle was heading south at 130 mph, roughly 50 mph over the posted speed limit of 80 mph.
The motorcycle slowed as it passed by the trooper, who then got behind the bike with emergency lights activated intent on stopping the bike, the report states.
“The suspect driver looked back at me several times and then accelerated to well over 130 MPH southbound,” the trooper noted in the report.
The trooper then notified the St. George Communications Center of the situation and terminated the pursuit as a safety precaution. An attempt to locate was sent out to officers in the area.
Within minutes of the broadcast, the motorcycle was spotted in LaVerkin by a Washington County Sheriff’s deputy who began trailing the bike, which by then was traveling at the posted speed limit, according to the report.
The deputy continued following the bike. Several minutes later, the rider “gave up” and was pulled over in Washington City, authorities said.
The trooper responded to the scene and confirmed it was the same bike that had eluded police earlier. The rider, 21-year-old Michael Benjamin Dailey, reportedly admitted to evading police earlier.
Dailey was arrested and booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility on third-degree felony evading and reckless driving, a misdemeanor.
On Monday, Dailey was formally charged with the two counts as listed, along with three traffic and equipment infractions. He made an initial appearance in court and was released on Monday evening.
Prior to the incident over the weekend, no other criminal cases or convictions could be found on Dailey other than several traffic infractions for speeding, according to court records.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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