CEDAR CITY — Two people were arrested following a high-speed chase along Interstate 15 on Monday that started in Washington County and ended just north of Parowan in Iron County.
A baby that was secured in a car seat in the rear of the vehicle was unharmed in the incident, authorities said.
Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Randy Riches said the pursuit initially began in Washington County shortly before 11 a.m. when, on northbound I-15 near mile marker 5 in St. George, a UHP trooper attempted to initiate a traffic stop on a passenger car for a suspected registration and insurance violation.
However, the driver didn’t pull over, instead leading the trooper on a brief chase.
“A few minutes later he terminated the pursuit for public safety reasons and gave a description of the vehicle,” Riches said, adding, “About a half-hour or so later, troopers in Iron County spotted the vehicle traveling northbound again in the area of mile post 51 on I-15.”
“They attempted to stop the car and it didn’t stop,” Riches said.
Once again, for public safety reasons, troopers suspended the chase as the vehicle passed through the Cedar City area, Riches said.
However, the responding UHP officers did coordinate their efforts in anticipation of where the vehicle would be seen again, Riches added.
“They just kept track of the vehicle through various means and picked it up again on the north side of Cedar City and began pursuing it again, I believe, somewhere near Parowan,” he said.
An officer was then able to deploy a spike strip that flattened two of the vehicle’s tires, causing the driver to stop near mile marker 85.
The man who was driving and his passenger, a woman, were then taken into custody without further incident, Riches said.
Riches said troopers did not know about the child inside the car until the vehicle was stopped.
“The baby was restrained in a car seat in the back seat behind heavily tinted windows,” he said.
No injuries were reported and no other vehicles were involved.
Although 80 miles separated the beginning and ending points of the chase, Riches said troopers were not in active pursuit for a majority of that time.
Other officers from multiple law enforcement agencies also responded and provided assistance during the incident, Riches said, adding that a section of northbound I-15 north of Parowan was closed briefly to traffic while the suspects were taken into custody.
Both suspects were booked into Iron County Jail shortly before 7 p.m. Monday. They were identified by jail records as Hector Godoy and Mary Niu.
Godoy was booked on suspicion of multiple charges, including failure to stop at command of police, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, driving without insurance and not having valid registration, in addition to possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Niu, meanwhile, faces a single count of reckless endangerment, a class A misdemeanor.
This report is based on information provided by law enforcement 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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