‘I was going a little bit above the posted speed limit’: UHP arrests driver doing 170 mph
ST. GEORGE — A driver was arrested early Friday morning after he was stopped by a UHP trooper for going 170 miles per hour along Interstate 15 in Iron County.
The driver, Korbin Timothy Golder of West Jordan, was booked into Iron County Jail after being pulled over just past the Exit 81 on-ramp by Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Nielson.
The incident began when Nielson – who was sitting in his car in the median of Interstate 15 near mile post 91 – heard what he characterized as the “distinctive” sound of the engine running at a high rate of speed.
As soon as he looked up he saw “a flash of the vehicle,” he said. According to radar, the car was traveling 170 mph.
The trooper pulled onto the interstate and started searching for the speeding car. Traffic was getting heavier as he proceeded south and Nielson said he knew the vehicle would be forced to reduce its speed to adapt to the increase.
“If he hadn’t slowed down for traffic there is no way I would have caught him,” Nielson said, “and I’ve got some pretty good speed on my car, but I wouldn’t have had a prayer.”
Nielson, with his lights activated, was able to get through the traffic and pull off at the Exit 81 on-ramp, where he stopped and began looking back for the “intense white headlights that I saw when that car came by me at mile post 91,” Nielson said.
He then observed the intense headlights followed by the distinctive sound of the engine, and pulled back onto the interstate where he got behind the 2018 Porsche Cayman and activated his lights and sirens.
The driver pulled over right away. Nielson asked him if he knew why he had stopped him and Golder replied, “I have a pretty good idea, and I know I was going a little bit over the posted speed limit.”
Nielson advised the driver that he clocked him on radar at 170 mph, “and at that point I just put him in handcuffs and placed him in the back of my vehicle,” he said.
While waiting for the tow truck, Nielson spoke to the passenger of the vehicle – who was also the driver’s brother – and asked him about reaching that speed.
The passenger told Nielson that “he was sleeping through part of it, but woke up when he felt the car slow down and looked over at the dash to see the speedometer at 160 mph,” the trooper said.
The driver told the trooper that he bought the Porsche in December and only had 3,800 miles on the car.
Nielson added that the driver also told him that, “once he saw the trooper’s vehicle waiting at the on-ramp, he knew he was in big trouble.”
Golder was placed under arrest and booked into Iron County Jail on charges of reckless driving and exhibition of speed, both class B misdemeanors.
Nielson said the man was cited for reckless driving due to the wanton disregard for life and property, which he discussed with Golder.
“You realize that if someone would have changed lanes and didn’t see how fast you were coming up – it would have killed you and probably everyone in that other car right?”
Nielson said Golder was cooperative and even told the trooper “when my radar detector went off I thought ‘crap, I’m done,’” but he had a clean record and was “a pretty good kid that made a very bad decision.”
The tow truck driver arrived to impound the vehicle and drove Golder’s brother to Cedar City on his way to the towing yard.
This report is based on statements from police or other emergency responders 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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