A Michigan driver was arrested following a brief pursuit on I-65 southbound in Scott County early Wednesday morning, Oct. 2.
The incident began shortly after 4 a.m., last Wednesday when the Indiana State Police received information of a dark-colored passenger car speeding southbound near the 45 mile marker north of Uniontown. The caller advised the vehicle was speeding and had no headlights or taillights.
ISP Sergeant Tracy Spencer and observed the car traveling southbound near the 35 mile marker south of Crothersville.
The vehicle, a blue 2015 Ford Focus, quickly approached from the north and Sergeant Spencer clocked the vehicle at 118 mph. The car had only its emergency flashers illuminated at that time and was in the left lane.
When Sergeant Spencer pulled out to stop the Focus, the driver, later identified as 55-year-old Joseph Lee Strain of Hudsonville, Michigan, continued southbound without slowing. Sergeant Spencer witnessed the vehicle passing other traffic and pass two semi-trucks on the right by driving in the emergency lane and the Austin on-ramp merge lane.
Strain then allegedly turned off the vehicle’s emergency flashers, and the Focus continued southbound without slowing and with no lights illuminated.
As the car approached the 32 mile marker south of Austin, the vehicles’ lights came on and the driver slowly pulled to the side of the roadway and came to a stop. Strain was taken into custody and booked into the Scott County Jail at 4:43 a.m.
Strain was charged with reckless driving, resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and maintaining common nuisance.
Scott Circuit Court Magistrate Alison Frazier set Strains bond at $50,000.
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