- An 85-year-old man in Florida was caught driving 110 mph in a 45 mph zone alongside another car, leading to charges of driving in a vehicle race and dangerous excessive speeding.
There are routine speeding stops, and then there is whatever played out on U.S. Highway 27 last week. Lake County deputies say they pulled over an 85-year-old man who was running through a 45 mph zone at 110 mph in the middle of the night. The driver did not really argue the speed. He argued the reason behind it, and that is where this one stops being a normal traffic story.
William Bosworth of Leesburg now faces two charges after deputies say he was caught running alongside another car late on June 12. According to an arrest affidavit, this was not a simple lead-foot situation. Investigators believe his gray sports car and a red Corvette next to it were street racing on a public highway at speeds that would be dangerous on a closed track, let alone a road shared with regular traffic.
What Deputies Say Happened
The whole thing kicked off around 11:40 p.m. near the intersection of U.S. Highway 27 and County Road 33 in Leesburg. A Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputy reported spotting two vehicles that looked like they were racing each other down the highway. Radar filled in the rest. The red Corvette was clocked at 125 mph. The gray Nissan sports car was right there with it at 110 mph. Both of those numbers were recorded in a stretch posted for 45.
The deputy flipped on his emergency lights and stopped the gray car. Behind the wheel was Bosworth, who, by his own account, was simply out having a good time. The full exchange was captured on the deputy’s body camera, which means the explanation he offered that night is now part of the official record. That detail matters, because his words ended up working against him.
The Explanation That Did Not Help
Here is the part that turns the story. When the deputy raised the racing accusation, Bosworth pushed back hard. He insisted he was not racing anybody. He claimed the other driver had swerved at him, and that he only hit 110 mph because he was trying to put distance between the two cars before something went wrong…