Tuesday, June 18, 2013

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Man Caught Speeding Tells Trooper Alaskans Drive Too Slow, Is Arrested For DUI
Murray Lynn Clayton told the trooper if he was clocked at 89 mph then the trooper got him while he was going slow.
By Fairbanks Daily News-Miner


FAIRBANKS — A Palmer man who nearly ran head on into another vehicle on the Parks Highway Saturday near Cantwell while driving about 100 mph told the Alaska State Trooper who stopped him that he “runs slow drivers off the road.”

The man was arrested by troopers and charged with felony assault and drunken driving.

Murray Lynn Clayton Jr., 41, was pulled over at 220.5 Mile after troopers received two reports of a dark-colored SUV that almost collided head on with another vehicle at 210 Mile about 2:10 p.m.

A Cantwell trooper spotted Clayton’s black Toyota 4Runner about five minutes later and clocked Clayton driving 89 mph before pulling him over.

Clayton appeared intoxicated and said he drank one mixed drink two hours before being stopped. He failed field sobriety tests and registered a 0.266 percent breath-alcohol content, which is more than three times the legal limit.

One of the two witnesses, Raymond Ezell of Cantwell, told troopers he was driving north when Clayton’s black SUV came up behind him at a high rate of speed and came within a foot of his rear bumper. Ezell told the trooper Clayton backed off about one-quarter of a mile before accelerating again and riding his bumper. Clayton passed him on a double-yellow line, Ezell said.

About 15 minutes later, Ezell saw the SUV pulled over on the shoulder of the road with a man standing next to it. A few minutes later, the vehicle caught up to Ezell again near 210.5 Mile, which is in a 45 mph zone, and passed him at a high rate of speed. Ezell said the vehicle continued driving north in the southbound lane and he watched it nearly collide with a southbound pickup. The truck had to drive across the opposite lane and onto the shoulder to avoid a collision.

The driver of the truck, Gordon Carlson of Cantwell, spoke to troopers by phone and submitted a written statement. Carlson said he saw the SUV traveling north in the wrong lane at a speed he estimated at 100 mph. Carlson told the trooper he thought the vehicle was going to kill him and he was a “goner.” Carlson said he drove across the opposite lane and almost into the ditch to prevent a collision. Once he stopped, he called 911.

Throughout his contact with the trooper, Clayton repeatedly bragged he was driving more than 100 mph and he did it because that’s how fast he drives in California. He told the trooper Alaska drivers drive too slow.

Clayton told the trooper if he was clocked at 89 mph then the trooper got him while he was going slow because he was coming out of a curve. Clayton bragged about routinely outrunning police in California and Oregon.

He told the trooper that as soon as he was released he would drive south on the Parks Highway at more than 100 mph but promised not to be drunk when he did so.