A street race and high-speed police pursuit early Sunday morning sent a Dodge Charger careening off a sharp bend and into the pluff mud near downtown Beaufort. Both occupants were hospitalized and the driver was arrested.
Around 12:35 a.m. Sunday, a trooper with the South Carolina Highway Patrol told nearby deputies he saw a motorcycle and Dodge Charger racing near the Broad River Bridge, reaching speeds over 130 mph. The Charger failed to stop for the trooper’s blue lights and turned onto Savannah Highway (S.C. 170), according to a police report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office .
The trooper requested backup from deputies but asked them “not to engage” due to the speed of the chase. At the intersection of Trask Parkway and Parris Island Gateway, the trooper unsuccessfully attempted to stop the Charger with a PIT maneuver , where police pull to the side of a fleeing vehicle and gently make contact, forcing the suspect’s vehicle to turn sideways and stop…