Connecticutmancharged with driving 130 mph is latest example of extreme speeding trend, police say
Jul. 8—In May, a state trooper observed a BMW sedan rocketing past at more than 130 mph on Route 2 West in Colchester, police said. The driver, Justin Keith Davenport, 36, of Hartford, fled but was arrested this week on reckless driving and other charges, police said.
On Interstate 91 in March, a trooper clocked a Dodge Challenger at 132 mph as the driver hurtled past other motorists. As the trooper tried to catch up, the Challenger driver accelerated to 140 mph, passing vehicles on both shoulders on the northbound side, police said. The trooper stopped the chase due to concerns about public safety, police said, but investigators tracked down the driver, Trent Logan, 23, of Enfield, and arrested him on charges that included first-degree reckless endangerment.
Over the past decade, police have clocked several other drivers at speeds up to 140 mph, according to news reports. State police have seen an overall increase in speeding over the past few years, agency spokesperson Trooper First Class Pedro A. Muñiz said Friday, "but we can not comment on why or exactly how much more as we do not have that information." Asked about record speeds clocked on state highways, Muñiz said police did not have that information either.
Among alleged extreme speeders, Alejandro Zapata-Rebello, of Danbury stands out. Zapata-Rebello was 30 last August when a New Hampshire state trooper clocked him driving a 2021 Chevrolet Corvette at about 160 mph, police have said.
The trooper spotted the orange sports car darting north on I-93 on a Sunday at about 11:15 a.m., police said. Using radar, the trooper clocked the low-slung car at 161 mph — more than 90 mph over the speed limit of 70 mph, according to state police. The car was traveling so fast, the trooper could not catch up, state police said. Instead, he alerted area police departments, and within minutes, reports came in of "multiple sports cars, including the orange car, driving erratically at high rates of speed, nearly causing crashes," state police said. Zapata-Rebello was stopped later when he got jammed up in traffic in the town of Woodstock, police said.
Police say other extreme speeders include a 41-year-old man who was caught in November 2016 driving 123 mph on I-84 in East Hartford with three children in the car. Ricardo Torres of Terryville was charged with reckless driving, risk of injury to a child and reckless endangerment.
Some drivers have posted photos and videos on social media showing straining speedometers. In April, state police arrested Joe Tavella III after they were alerted to videos posted to Instagram and Facebook showing the driver of a Chevrolet traveling at 133 mph on what appeared to be Route 7 in Norwalk, a police report said.
The speed limit in that area is 55 mph, state police said. The 18-second video showed the speedometer of the car, which had a Chevy emblem on the steering wheel, accelerating from 56 mph to 133 mph, the report said. The social media posts were set to allow the general public to view the video, state police said.
A nationwide search for extreme speeder stories turned up a 2004 Associated Press report out of Minnesota, where a a state patrol pilot clocked a motorcyclist whirring at 205 mph. in a 65 mph zone while racing with another biker. The Dallas Morning News reported in April that the driver of a Dodge Charger was clocked in Gonzales County at 201 mph in a 75 mph zone.
The fastest speed ever on a public roadway was recorded on a Nevada highway on Oct, 10, 2020, according to multiple news reports. With a seven-mile stretch of highway outside Las Vegas shut down for the attempt, the Tuatara, built by SSC North America in Washington state, averaged 316 mph and hit a high of 331 mph, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.
The car produces 1,750-horsepower and costs $1.9 million. Only 12 were to be built. The speed record surpassed the 278 mph reached by Swedish car company Koenigsegg Automotive in 2017, the newspaper reported.
