911 call released from when 12-year-old girl caught driving on I-15
Mar 19, 2024, 2:17 PM | Updated: Jun 28, 2024, 4:06 pm
FILE (Utah Highway Patrol)
(Utah Highway Patrol)
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Highway Patrol released a 911 call from a semitruck driver reporting — what the caller didn’t know at the time was a 12-year-old driver on Interstate 15.
The 12-year-old girl, who had secretly taken her mom’s car, led police on a car chase before she was finally safely taken into custody near the 10400 South exit.
“I am on I-15 southbound, we are about to ….2300 North going into Salt Lake City,” the driver tells the dispatcher. “I believe I’ve got a drunk driver ahead of my semitruck. We are currently going about 50 mph, and they are just swerving back and forth their headlights are not on.”
The woman described the vehicle on the call as a small black four-door car but said she couldn’t see the license plate.
“Oh please don’t crash,” she said on the call.
The driver told the dispatcher they were following the car, which was now going only about 40 mph, with their hazard lights on.
When the dispatcher asked for an update on what the car was doing a few moments later, the semitruck driver responded, “They are continuing down the road they’re just swerving back and forth across this traffic.”
Throughout the call, the black car changed speeds from as low as 35 mph to as high as 70 mph.
“They’ve moved into the HOV lane,” the semitruck driver said.
Eventually, the black car sped up to the point that the semitruck driver couldn’t keep up.
A few moments later, the dispatcher told her there was a UHP trooper that could see the car.
The Department of Public Safety said the trooper attempted a traffic stop but the car did not stop. Multiple troopers responded to help slow traffic behind the black car and one trooper deployed spikes on I-15 near the 9400 South exit.
The car continued despite the spikes and troopers than performed a “pursuit intervention technique” and were able to stop the car at 10400 South, 21 miles from where the driver was originally reported.
The girl was returned to her parents and charges will come through the juvenile court.
