UHP pulls over suspected DUI driver going nearly double the speed limit

WELLSVILLE, Cache County — When you've been a Utah Highway Patrol trooper for as long as Phil Rawlinson has, it's safe to say you have seen it all.

"Just a little over 17 years," said trooper Rawlinson. "I've seen quite a bit."

However, while patrolling Saturday morning along Highway 89 in Wellsville, Cache County, he saw something he still can't believe someone was doing.

"I could see him coming down the hill through Sardine (Canyon) and was passing cars almost like they were standing still," Rawlinson explained.

Sure enough, his radar said the driver was doing 121 mph in a 65 mph zone.

"Usually, at that speed, the radar is making a lot of noise, so we can hear it pretty good," Rawlinson said.

He radioed UHP trooper Joshua Preece, who was ahead of him, to give him a heads-up.

"He was finishing up on another call, and I told him 'There's a car coming at 121. Get ready,'" Rawlinson said. Then, he went after the driver.

That driver stopped at about mile marker 18, just a little bit down the road.

If his speeding wasn't bad enough, the two troopers noticed the smell of alcohol on the driver.

"We could tell, you know, based on his movements," Rawlinson said. "He was having a hard time giving us his basic information."

He had the driver do a field sobriety test, then a breathalyzer test. It turns out he was four times the legal limit.

The driver apologized to troopers several times, but he was arrested, taken to jail, and his Mustang was impounded.

"We're just glad it didn't turn into a crash we had to show up on," Rawlinson expressed.

At that speed, there's a good chance that any crash would likely be fatal.

No matter how many DUI speeders Rawlinson has caught in his career, why some drivers still do it will never make any sense.

"We're glad it ended the way it did because everybody was safe," he said. "But, in reality, he's putting us in danger, he's putting the public in danger, put himself in quite a bit of danger."

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