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NEPHI — One man was arrested overnight after he allegedly led officers on a high-speed chase while traveling the wrong direction on I-15 in Juab County.
Cory Roy White, 43, is being held in the Juab County Jail without bail on suspicion of reckless driving, reckless endangerment, speeding, driving with a suspended or revoked license, driving on the wrong side of the roadway, driving under the influence, an open container violation, and other offenses.
Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Michael Gordon said local dispatch started receiving calls about a wrong-way driver on the highway about 11:40 p.m. Friday night. According to a probable cause statement, White was heading north in the southbound lanes on I-15 north of Nephi.
He was pursued by local police officers as well as Juab County Sheriff's deputies and UHP troopers.
The pursuing officers had trouble getting close enough without running any vehicles off the road, the statement says, but eventually caught up to White who was traveling about 100 miles per hour, and at one point was clocked at 110 mph. A trooper was able to pull ahead of White's vehicle and ram it on the highway near Mona, disabling both cars.
A Nephi officer ordered White out of the car at gunpoint, handcuffed him and put him in his patrol car. While they waited for medical attention to arrive, the officer asked White why he was traveling the wrong way and White told the officer he "thought it was all a dream" and thought the trooper "was just trying to race him," the statement says.
"The driver smelled strongly of alcohol," the officer wrote.
While searching White's car, the officer found an open container of alcohol that had sloshed all over White's van during the crash. White was transported to the hospital, where he submitted to a preliminary breath test that showed negative for alcohol.
White then consented to a blood and urine test, as well; the urine test came back positive for methamphetamine.
White estimated to the officer that this will be his third DUI, the statement says, which the officer confirmed by looking over White's record. White was already on probation in Orem at the time of the chase, and all those factors led police to ask that White be held without bail.
