DENVER — A speeding driver going the wrong way on Interstate 25 north of Fort Collins earlier this month was arrested by the Colorado State Patrol after leading a trooper through a dangerous chase, a spokesperson with the agency said Thursday.
The incident happened on Aug. 10 at approximately 7:06 p.m. near milepost 278, according to a spokesperson with the Colorado State Patrol (CSP).
Troopers said the driver, 36-year-old Nelson Oldham, was spotted by a trooper after a witness on the highway reported a black Mercedes driving “in a reckless manner” north on I-25. The witness reported that the vehicle was going at speeds exceeding 100 mph and nearly struck her car while passing.
The witness said the situation escalated when Oldham stopped in the far-left lane, turned around using the HOV and left lanes of the highway, and then “resumed traveling in the wrong direction.”
Troopers said the witness told them Oldham was going the wrong way on I-25, driving directly into oncoming traffic, including her own vehicle. She told troopers Oldham then illegally used an emergency turn-around and entered I-25 going south in the southbound lanes at high speed, according to a news release.
- Watch the dash cam footage from the trooper's patrol car in the video player below:
A CSP trooper was alerted and spotted the vehicle a short time later. The trooper clocked the Mercedes going at 102 mph on southbound I-25 near milepost 267, the release states.
When the trooper tried to stop Oldham, he refused to pull over and instead swerved across all lanes and “made a dangerous turnaround in the fast far left and HOV lanes, again,” per the news release.
The trooper’s dash camera captured Oldham going in the wrong direction and coming directly into him, which forced the trooper to brake hard to avoid a head-on crash. Troopers said Oldham then continued northbound in the southbound lanes, “once again putting countless motorists at risk.”
The CSP said the Mercedes crossed all lanes of oncoming traffic and exited I-25 to Highway 392, where the trooper chased the suspect. The vehicle briefly headed west, then abruptly turned back east before pulling into a fast-food restaurant parking lot, the CSP spokesperson said.
At that point, the trooper blocked the car, ordered the driver out of the vehicle, and placed the driver under arrest without further incident, the release states.
“Thanks to the vigilance of the reporting witness and the actions of Trooper Bogart, this driver was stopped before causing what could have been a catastrophic tragedy,” the spokesperson said.
Oldham was arrested on several charges, including vehicular eluding created a substantial risk of bodily injury by operating a vehicle in a reckless manner; driving a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs or both; speeding (25-39 mph over the maximum 75mph limit); reckless endangerment, changing lanes when unsafe, driving a vehicle on the wrong side of divided highway.
