A driver topped 103 miles per hour while weaving through traffic on Interstate 95 last month before slamming into a stopped car in a congested stretch of highway near Fort Lauderdale, triggering a chain-reaction crash that also damaged a Florida Highway Patrol cruiser. Troopers say the driver, 35-year-old Marquel Montgomery, then ran from the wreckage on foot before being caught nearby.
The pursuit began the evening of July 10 when a trooper received reports of another trooper spotting a recklessly driven white Buick on I-95, according to newly released dashcam footage reported by WSVN 7News. Florida Highway Patrol troopers say Montgomery cut off other drivers at high speeds and, per the arrest report, directly interfered with other traffic while attempting to maintain a high rate of speed. Additional detail on the chase's origin and route comes from We News, which reports the pursuit began shortly after 8 p.m. as troopers spotted the Buick weaving through southbound traffic, with a responding trooper merging in from eastbound Interstate 595 to join the chase.
The station's report notes that Montgomery showed no signs of reducing speed or attempting to pull over, according to FHP, as the pursuit carried into a heavily congested section of I-95 in Fort Lauderdale. That congestion, per the same account, existed because emergency rescue vehicles were already parked on the roadway responding to an earlier, unrelated incident — a detail that helps explain why traffic had backed up so severely ahead of the fleeing Buick.
Chain-Reaction Crash Damages Patrol Car
Montgomery crashed into a stopped vehicle in that congested stretch, setting off a chain-reaction collision that also struck another FHP cruiser responding to the separate, earlier incident. After the crash, Montgomery abandoned the Buick and fled on foot before troopers caught up with him nearby, the outlet reported.
Once apprehended, Montgomery reportedly told troopers repeatedly that he was sorry, according to WSVN 7News. He is also quoted as saying, “I am on ecstasy. I need help please.”
Charges and Legal Exposure
Montgomery now faces charges including leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and resisting an officer, and he remains in Broward County jail. Under Section 316.1935 of the Florida Statutes, fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer in a marked patrol car with active lights and sirens is a third-degree felony, according to Online Sunshine, carrying up to five years in state prison and a mandatory driver's license revocation of one to five years.
Florida law also treats fleeing an officer in a vehicle as reckless driving per se under Section 316.192, and reckless driving that causes property damage is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, per the same statutory language. Separately, a 2025 law created a standalone criminal offense for what the state calls dangerous excessive speeding — operating a vehicle at 100 mph or higher, or 50 mph over the posted limit — carrying up to 30 days in jail for a first offense, according to the Brancato Law Firm. Montgomery's reported 103 mph would fall within that threshold.
Why Troopers Pursued
Florida Highway Patrol's Emergency Response and Pursuit Policy authorizes troopers to initiate vehicle pursuits for suspects believed to have committed a forcible felony, reckless driving, or driving under the influence, according to background compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FHP revised its statewide pursuit guidelines in late 2023 to give troopers broader discretion to initiate and maintain chases, a shift that stands in contrast to several South Florida municipal police departments that strictly limit pursuits to violent forcible felonies, as reported by Police1.
That policy gap helps explain why high-speed interstate chases in South Florida so often involve state troopers rather than local police. Hoodline has previously reported on chases tied to 40 deaths statewide over four years amid scrutiny of FHP's approach.
A Crowded Corridor
The stretch of I-95 where Montgomery crashed sits within one of Florida's busiest and most crash-prone counties. Preliminary 2025 data from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles shows Broward County recorded 36,871 total traffic crashes, averaging more than 101 collisions per day across corridors including I-95 and I-595, according to South Florida Injury Law. FLHealthCHARTS data for 2024 similarly placed Broward among the state's highest-volume crash counties, with 38,338 crashes recorded out of 381,423 statewide.
Montgomery remains jailed in Broward County as the case moves forward.
