Nearly every driver understands the dangers of driving while their attention is not on their duty at hand. Talking on a cell phone and possibly more distracting, texting while driving has been outlawed in many communities but still drivers face a constant barrage of distractions behind the wheel. Add to that police officers in a high speed pursuit putting two vehicles traveling at usually a high rate of speed – the police and the one trying to get away – and the dangers of driving go up even more.
The Driving Distractions Prove to be Fatal
What many fail to understand is that emergency vehicles, which could be considered rolling offices on the road, offer more distractions than most private vehicles. Consider the police cruiser with its on-board computer. The officer may be following a suspect vehicle and enters their license plate number into the computer. When the information is returned, the officer takes their eyes off the road to read the results.
Other emergency vehicles, such as ambulances and fire trucks, are also often distracted by information they are either receiving or reporting while on their way to an emergency. Despite their lights and sirens, others fail to yield resulting in an accident that may have been preventable. While the number of these accidents may have fallen recently due to public education about the need to yield to emergency vehicles, high speed pursuits continue to claim the lives of innocent victims as well as to those being chased.
Questioning the Reason for the Chase
Those who have had a loved one killed after being involved in an accident with someone involved in a high speed police chase often question the reason for the chase. Most argue that pursuits should be limited to the times when they are absolutely required, yet there are disagreements as to what those requirements should be.
Most police departments have specific guidelines of when a pursuit is considered justified as well as when the pursuit is to be halted. Many states also regulate the requirements for an officer to enter into a high speed chase and North Carolina especially is looking into police practices after seeing a spike of injuries and fatalities resulting from high speed police chases.
There have been fatal crashes involving drivers who either failed to obey an officer’s order to stop or speed away from a police check point that ended up in hot pursuit by the police. It has been argued that simply failing to obey an officer’s order should not be sufficient cause to engage in a high speed chase, putting them, the officer and many others at risk. Without reasonable knowledge that the driver is breaking any other laws, the dangers of the chase should outweigh the current need to begin the pursuit.
Filing a Claim Wrongful Death
Those injured as a result of a crash during a high speed chase do have the option of filing a claim for wrongful death, once it has been proven the death was a direct result of the chase. The person that failed to stop, or even the officer engaged in a chase for questionable reasons, could be held financially accountable for any damages or injuries resulting from the crash.