A California judge sentenced a 33-year-old YouTuber to 60 days in jail on Monday for the reckless highway behavior he posted online for views. Scott Kitfield hit triple-digit speeds on San Francisco Bay Area freeways and viewed the local news coverage chastising his actions as a badge of honor. Once he serves his time, Kitfield will be legally required to drive only vehicles registered in his name and carrying a tracking device.
As much as the attention seeker deserved it, California Highway Patrol couldn’t apprehend Kitfield, a Concord, California resident, solely based on the dash cam footage he posted on YouTube. Law enforcement needed to prove that he was behind the wheel definitively. The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office stated:
On July 14, 2023, investigators from CHP’s Golden Gate Investigative Service Unit (ISU) planned an operation to arrest Kitfield and stop his reckless driving. A CHP aircraft tracked his car as he drove home from Solano County to Concord in the afternoon. CHP officers saw Kitfield speeding over 110 mph on Interstate 680 as he crossed the Benicia-Martinez bridge. He even went faster than 120 mph while racing another car through Martinez.
Just after passing a CHP patrol vehicle, Kitfield swerved abruptly across the freeway and exited at Willow Pass Road and drove into a residential area. A CHP officer in a marked patrol car followed him and tried to pull him over as he turned around at a dead end. Instead of stopping, Kitfield led the CHP officers on a chase before finally stopping his car and surrendering. Officers from the Solano County Sheriff’s Office also helped with the arrest.
ISU personnel recovered Kitfield’s computer and the dash camera he used to create videos for his YouTube channel. The devices contained several more videos of him driving recklessly on freeways in Contra Costa and other Bay Area counties.
Both Kitfield and the police were lucky that no one was injured during the pursuit. It’s not uncommon that complete bystanders are hurt or killed during chases. For his part, Kitfield was charged and convicted of fleeing a pursuing peace officer’s motor vehicle while driving recklessly and engaging in a motor vehicle exhibition of speed on a highway. He was also convicted of driving without a valid license and reckless driving on a highway for two prior speeding incidents. The district attorney said in a statement, “This is a case where the defendant was gambling with human lives.”
Kitfield’s YouTube channel has long been deleted. If his account is remembered, it will be alongside other idiots who have endangered the public, like Trevor Jacob. Jacob was an Olympic snowboarder who intentionally crashed a small plane to create a viral video. In December 2023, he was sentenced to six months in jail for obstructing the crash investigation.