2 men arrested, accused of racing at over 120 mph on I-15

LEHI — Two men were arrested early Thursday after police say they were racing at over 120 mph on I-15.

A North Salt Lake man, 35, and a Draper man, 21, were booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of reckless driving, engaging in a speed contest on the highway and going more than 100 mph. The 21-year-old man was also arrested for investigation of DUI and having an open container of alcohol in his car.

The incident happened about 1:10 a.m. Thursday when a Utah Highway Patrol trooper spotted a Dodge Challenger and a Mercedes-Benz C-Class driving side-by-side on southbound I-15 near the Point of the Mountain.

"The two vehicles accelerated to an extremely high rate of speed," the trooper wrote in a police booking affidavit. "The two vehicles accelerated very quickly. I activated my (radar speed gun), but they were traveling at such an extreme rate of speed, passing other vehicles and on a curve, that my (radar speed gun) could not measure their speed. I visually estimated the speeds to be between 120 mph and 130 mph. The two vehicles were driving side-by-side with each other. I looked at my own speed, I was at 108 mph, and the two vehicles were pulling away from me very quickly."

The Mercedes exited in Lehi. The trooper followed that vehicle and told another trooper down the road to stop the Challenger.

The trooper pulled over the Mercedes and noted "a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from inside" the car and that the 21-year-old driver "was slurring his speech and had very bloodshot eyes," according to the affidavit. The driver refused to perform field sobriety tests or submit to a blood test. A search warrant to obtain a blood sample to determine his blood-alcohol level was pending at the time the affidavit was filed.

The driver of the Challenger was also pulled over and arrested.

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