A stolen truck filled with stolen goods ended up wrapped around a utility pole after two men engaged deputy sheriffs and a Utah Highway Patrol trooper in a chase early Friday.
Deputy Rob Nielsen spotted a Ford pickup truck with no license plates near 4100 South and Redwood Road at 3:47 a.m. He followed it a short distance before the driver sped away, drawing Nielsen into a chase east along 4100 South at speeds of about 90 mph, said Salt Lake County sheriff's Sgt. Kendra Herlin.The chase turned north on Main Street where the driver of the truck lost control and spun out on the rain-slick street. But he regained control and sped away again. A UHP trooper joined in the chase, Herlin said, and the driver tried unsuccessfully to ram his car.
The chase ended when the truck slammed into a utility pole about 3475 S. Main. The driver fled on foot and eluded officers by hiding in bushes near the crash site. Deputies searching with dogs soon found the man. He complained of minor injuries from the crash when he was apprehended.
The passenger in the truck was seriously injured in the crash and was flown by helicopter to University Hospital.
Herlin said investigators were still trying to learn the identities of the two men later Friday morning. She estimated the driver is 18- to 20-years-old and the passenger 23- to 25-years-old.
After the crash, officers tied the chase in with a report by a motorist who saw the night security gate at the Henry S. Day car dealership strewn across traffic lanes on Redwood Road. Herlin said the truck had been taken from the dealership. Deputies also found stereo equipment and VCRs in the truck that had been taken earlier in the morning in the burglary of a Redwood Road business, one block from where Nielsen first spotted the truck.