High-Speed Police Car Chases Result in Deaths of Innocent Bystanders
According to a USA Today review, 1/3rd of those killed in high-speed police chases are innocent bystanders. While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that about 360 people are killed every year during police pursuits, those who support tougher chase policies say the actual number of deaths are higher.
One reason for this is that there isn’t a mandatory reporting system to log the deaths that occur during police chases. Also, innocent bystanders killed after a cop has stopped chasing a suspect aren’t counted in the fatality numbers.
According to University of South Carolina professor of criminology Geoffrey Alpert, 35-40% of all police pursuits result in car accidents. Alpert notes that implementing restrictive chase polices has been known to decrease the number of police pursuits and the deaths that can result.
Chicago Car Accidents
Our Chicago car crash lawyers work with clients in Cook County, Lake County, Will County, and DuPage County that have been injured in all kinds of traffic accidents. Just because a police officer is doing his/her job by pursuing a suspect doesn’t mean that he or she can place other people’s lives at risk by driving at speeds significantly higher than the posted speed limit or disobeying traffic signals or striking vehicles and pedestrians in their way. Police officers are also supposed to refrain from causing accident injuries to the suspect(s) that are the object of the pursuit.
Deaths lead police to question high-speed chase policies, USA Today, April 23, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Police Pursuits: Facts, Policies, and Technologies (PDF)
You may have grounds for filing a Chicago injury lawsuit against the negligent party that caused your traffic crash.
