Motorcycle Chase Reaches 100 MPH In Cartersville

CARTERSVILLE, GA -- A Cartersville man operating a motorcycle was arrested last week after leading Bartow County sheriff's deputies on a high-speed chase. At around 9:25 p.m. Nov. 29, a deputy observed the motorcycle traveling on Sugar Valley Road towards Road No. 2 South and as it passed the cop, he noticed the vehicle had no working tail light.

The deputy activated his emergency blue lights and conducted a traffic stop at the intersection. The motorcyclist, later identified as 25-year-old Cody Lamar Hovers, pulled into a gas station.

"Prior to approaching the motorcycle, the driver appeared nervous and continued to look back at me several times," the deputy wrote in an incident report released by the Bartow County Sheriff's Office. "I felt as though he was waiting on me to exit my patrol vehicle and attempt to flee."

The deputy approached Hovers and asked him to remove his helmet. However, Hovers fled the traffic stop on the motorcycle and was seen traveling towards Sugar Valley Road, the incident report states. The deputy pursued the motorcycle, which was clocked traveling at 88 miles per hour while "driving on the wrong side of the road," the report adds.

Hovers turned left into the Hickory Springs subdivision where he slowed down to about 50 miles per hour while running multiple stop signs and operating the motorcycle on the wrong side of the road, the report alleges. Another deputy and deputy sergeant joined the pursuit as Hovers made his way on to Crestbrook Drive.

Those officers tried to "funnel" Hovers into a narrow path. Hovers initially came to a near stop close to one of the patrol vehicles, but he accelerated and struck the car's front driver side door as he escaped.

The officers chased Hovers as he traveled north on Burnt Hickory Road where he passed another vehicle traveling in the same direction while "entering the southbound lane, forcing another vehicle onto the shoulder," the report states. Hovers, who reached speeds between 90 and 100 miles per hour on Burnt Hickory Road, made a left turn onto Bingham Road where he slowed to about 50 miles per hour.

At this point in the chase, Hovers, the deputy added in his report, tapped his brakes multiple times "in what appeared to be an effort to get me to strike his motorcycle." Hovers continued to flee and drove the motorcycle a short distance into a wooded area off a private gravel road near Pearl Lane where he was apprehended. Hover's motorcycle was confirmed to have no valid insurance or registration, and he also had a suspended license for failure to appear.

Bartow County Jail records show Hovers was booked into the facility around 10:50 p.m. Nov. 29 and charged with felony aggravated assault and felony attempting to flee and elude police for a felony offense. Misdemeanor charges he faces are standards for brake lights, willful obstruction, driving with a suspended/revoked license, no proof of insurance, interference with government property and probation violation. He remains held at the facility without bond.

Photo: Cody Lamar Hovers. Credit: Bartow County Jail