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Karen Scullin reporting A Utah Highway Patrol officer is lucky to be alive this afternoon.
Late last night, he pulled over a car on I-80 for speeding. Just a routine stop. But what happened next was anything but routine!
Troopers have had a rough go over the last few months, several have been hit by passing cars, but last night a routine traffic stop almost cost one Utah Highway Patrol Trooper his life.
Trooper Mike Holt pulled over 22-year old Jennifer Keller for speeding just over the state line on I-80, having no idea what he was in for.
It turns out the young woman had a warrant out for her arrest.
Trooper Holt took her into custody, but she wasn't ready to go to jail just yet.
She managed to wrestle up to the driver's seat, and hit the trooper.
Trooper Mike Holt, Hit by suspect: "To the best of my recollection , I looked at the vehicle up in front of me, I turned around, had the lights turned on inside of my
vehicle, I could see her in the drivers seat. So I came back, and hoped that I could get her out of the car before she could take off. She put it into gear, ran into me. I hit the front bumper, tumbled over the hood, over to the passenger side, a near miss on the rear tires."
The trooper received a gash on the back of his head.
Police began chasing the woman and speeds reached 115 miles per hour Troopers stopped her about 45 minutes later after the tires of the patrol car were spiked.
Keller was wanted on a forgery charge, but now faces charges of evading arrest, escape, vehicle theft and attempted homicide.
A couple of civilians had their tires spiked during the ordeal --- but no one other than Trooper Holt was hurt.
