Man Accused of Hitting 99 MPH Near Fonda-Fultonville Elementary

100 MPH in a School Zone

There are bad decisions… and then there’s whatever this guy was doing.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says a Johnstown man is facing a stack of charges after deputies say he hit 99 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone while blowing past Fonda-Fultonville Elementary School at 4 am.

According to the press release, the incident occurred last Saturday morning, and 23-year-old Kristopher Gardner of Johnstown was behind the wheel, thinking he was playing Grand Theft Auto.

What Happened?

The MCSO says Deputies initially responded to a call about a physical altercation involving three intoxicated people in Fultonville. But when officers arrived, the trio had taken off in a car, which deputies soon spotted in the Village of Fultonville.

According to the report, when officers tried to pull the car over, Gardner allegedly did the most on-brand 4 am decision imaginable: he floored it.

Deputies say he fled into the Village of Fonda, then onto Old Johnstown Road, hitting 99 mph again, in a posted 30 zone, as he sped past the elementary school. At that point, deputies say they discontinued the pursuit because his driving was so reckless it wasn’t safe to continue.

He was driving so foolishly that law enforcement said, “Nope, not worth dying today.”

After an investigation, Gardner was arrested and charged with:

• Reckless Endangerment (Felony)
• Unlawful Fleeing (Misdemeanor)
• Reckless Driving (Misdemeanor)

He was arraigned in Glen Town Court and released on his own recognizance, with a later court date in Mohawk.

Big shoutout to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office for shutting this nonsense down before someone got hurt and to the deputies who trusted the car would eventually stop on its own once it ran out of horsepower, sobriety, or both.