1 man arrested, 2 patrol cars hit during Summit County chase
Oct 10, 2023, 11:38 AM | Updated: Jul 26, 2024, 7:13 pm
A man was arrested in Summit County on Monday after allegedly leading police on a high-speed chase and hitting and least two patrol cars. (Jeffrey Dahdah, KSL TV)
(Jeffrey Dahdah, KSL TV)
PARK CITY — A man was arrested in Summit County after allegedly leading police on a high-speed chase and hitting at least two patrol cars.
David Matheson Thomas, 60, was booked into the Summit County Jail on Monday for investigation of two counts of assault on a police officer, impaired driving, reckless driving, interfering with an officer, failing to respond to an officer’s signal to stop and causing an accident.
The incident began about 11:30 p.m. Sunday when Summit County sheriff’s deputies received a report that “someone driving an SUV had nearly hit someone in the parking lot of a store” in the Kimball Junction area.
Deputies responding to the area spotted the vehicle and attempted to pull it over. The driver, later identified as Thomas, however, refused to stop, according to a police booking affidavit.
“Shortly after the pursuit was initiated, David put his car into reverse, (went backward) down the road towards the deputy, and rammed into the front of the deputy’s vehicle,” according to the affidavit. The deputy was not injured.
Deputies say the chase continued for over five minutes, with Thomas going over 90 mph in a 45 mph zone. “During the pursuit, David rammed into at least one other police car before coming to a stop,” the affidavit states.
The second vehicle hit was a patrol car with the Park City Police Department. That officer was not injured.
“Once stopped, deputies and officers from Park City police boxed-in David’s car using their own cars. David’s vehicle tires continued to spin as he attempted to drive away. During the time David’s tires were spinning, he continued to ram into multiple police cars. Deputies and officers continued to give orders to David through his now broken window (to stop but) David continued to not comply and continued his attempts to flee,” according to the affidavit.
Deputies were eventually able to unlock the SUV’s door through a broken window and forcibly remove Thomas from the vehicle. He was taken to a local hospital where it was determined he had taken methamphetamine, the affidavit states. After being released from the hospital, Thomas was booked into jail.
