AN AMERICAN rider told police he led them on a high-speed chase across the Florida Keys because he didn’t want to upset his mother by getting into trouble.
Daniel Alberto Berroa-Baez, 21, faces charges of fleeing and eluding law enforcement, reckless driving, failure to register his vehicle and not having a motorcycle license.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent first spotted two men speeding on their Hondas around 2:40 a.m. near mile marker 66, said a Monroe County sheriff's spokesman.
A deputy attempted to pull them over on Duck Key, but they kept riding south. Deputies did not chase the fast-moving motorcycles for safety reasons. Around 2:53, the bikes were clocked at 80mph near mile marker 56 by another deputy, who also stopped chasing them as their speeds increased.
Between mile marker 30 and 20, the motorcycles turned around and started heading north on U.S. 1. At one point, a deputy and a Florida Highway Patrol trooper followed the pair riding over the Seven Mile Bridge, which has a 55 mph posted speed limit, traveling 100mph, according to a Monroe County Sheriff's Office report.
Berroa-Baez, who lives in Sunrise, finally stopped for deputies at the Green Turtle Inn, mile marker 81.2 in Islamorada, but the other man kept going and made it out of the Keys. Linhardt said it was not immediately known whether police in Miami-Dade County caught him.
