A Pierce County trooper tried to pull over a driver going 103 mph, but instead of stopping, the driver took off, blew past a set of spike strips, and kept the chase rolling into King County. By the time it was over, ground troopers had thrown down a second set of spike strips, thrown a couple of PIT maneuvers, and the driver was still going — on his rims.
According to the Washington State Patrol, the pursuit began during a joint District 1 and District 2 Target Zero emphasis patrol, a high-visibility enforcement push that puts extra troopers on the lookout for extreme speeding, aggressive driving, and impaired drivers along the Interstate 5 corridor. The driver initially avoided the first set of spike strips deployed by troopers, then continued fleeing into King County as the pursuit escalated.
That's when WSP's aerial unit, known by the call sign Smokey, got involved. The agency says Smokey provided an aerial option that helped troopers create distance and reduce the risk of the pursuit, maintaining visual contact with the fleeing vehicle from the air while ground troopers disengaged and pulled back to prepare for a safer stop.
How the Plane Changed the Chase
WSP's Aviation Section flies a fleet of five Cessna fixed-wing aircraft out of Olympia Airport, equipped with Forward-Looking Infrared thermal cameras and Augmented Reality Systems that let pilots track vehicles and measure their speeds from the air, day or night, according to 102.7 KORD. The setup lets ground troopers back off entirely rather than trail a fleeing car at triple-digit speeds through populated corridors, cutting the danger to other drivers while the plane keeps eyes on the target overhead.
The agency has described this tactic before: pulling ground units back to create distance while aircraft maintain contact, then guiding troopers back in once conditions allow for a safer intervention, as Washington State Patrol has explained. It's the same playbook WSP used in April, when Smokey 3 tracked a motorcycle hitting 161 mph on I-5 between Tacoma and King County, letting ground troopers disengage before boxing in the rider in Federal Way, as detailed in Hoodline's report on that Federal Way bust.
Rims, Spike Strips, and a High-Risk Stop
Eventually, ground troopers deployed another set of spike strips, but the driver kept fleeing even after his tires were shredded, continuing on the vehicle's rims. Troopers performed a couple of PIT maneuvers before finally taking the driver into custody in what WSP described as a high-risk stop.
The driver was booked into Pierce County Jail on charges of felony eluding, DUI, and driving with a suspended license. Under Washington law, willfully refusing to stop and driving recklessly while attempting to elude a pursuing patrol vehicle is a Class C felony, and a conviction also triggers mandatory license revocation, according to the state statute cited by Justia Law. A first-offense DUI in Washington also carries its own mandatory penalties, including at least 24 consecutive hours in jail and fines up to $5,000, on top of any felony eluding consequences, as Hoodline reported in a recent Chelan County pursuit case.
Why Troopers Can Chase at All
Troopers were able to pursue the vehicle in the first place because of a 2024 change to state law. Washington's Initiative 2113 lowered the legal bar for initiating a pursuit from probable cause back down to reasonable suspicion that a driver has broken the law and poses a threat to safety, reversing a stricter 2021 restriction, per MyNorthwest. Officers engaging in pursuits are required to be certified in emergency vehicle operations and intervention tactics like the PIT maneuver, which involves controlled contact with a fleeing vehicle's rear quarter panel and carries real rollover risk at high speeds, according to the Washington State Legislature.
The Pierce County stop was publicized by WSP on August 19, timed to National Aviation Day, the federally recognized observance marking Orville Wright's birthday that dates back to a 1939 proclamation by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, according to NASA. It's also a reminder of the stakes behind Washington's Target Zero campaign, a statewide push by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission and WSDOT to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2030, launched after the state saw an 85 percent jump in traffic deaths between 2013 and 2023.
