A midnight traffic stop in St. Petersburg spiraled into a multicharge arrest after a driver chose flight over compliance and found the nearest pond the hard way.
There are bad decisions, and then there are decisions that end with you climbing out of a sinking SUV at midnight and attempting a swimming escape from law enforcement. Early Thursday morning in St. Petersburg, Florida, 26-year-old Nycolye Carrion managed to accomplish exactly that, turning what began as a routine speeding stop into a pursuit that touched nearly every charge on the reckless driving charge sheet.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers were patrolling the area near 22nd Avenue North and 34th Street North just after midnight when they clocked a Kia SUV moving at 58 mph in a posted 40-mph zone. That alone would have been a manageable situation. Instead, when a trooper attempted to initiate a traffic stop, Carrion accelerated away, which is the kind of choice that tends to make everything that follows significantly worse…