I just witnessed a really bad accident that was the result of a high speed chase.
 

I was leaving our favorite eatery . I was just pulling on the door handle of my truck to climb in, when I turned to see what the sirens were all about. Then I saw, and heard a really nasty impact.
60 more seconds, My son, girlfriend, and myself would have been sitting at that light. It was slightly disturbing. Makes you realize just how fragile life really can be.
I guess the bad guy had hit two other cars at the last intersection and when he came in to ours, he creamed an A6 at what I am estimating to be at least 80 mph.
The victims car took out one light pole ( I saw it airborne ) and got smashed , and pinned into another one, across the intersection , with one of those large electric panels on it. There was airborne debris everywhere. looked like a nascar crash.
I was surprised to see him alive. They pulled him out , and the poor guy was screaming his head off. The image of the position of his legs, is an image that will stick with me for some time.
The police came out with guns drawn, but here is what pisses me off . The police were from a little po dunk town, 15 miles away from this accident. They engaged in a high speed chase on a busy divided highway at peak traffic times.
Unless , this guy was a child molester, had just killed someone, or was about to kill someone, I think the police used bad judgment. Just my .02.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1371516960.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1371516975.jpg
I know there has been a lot of controversy surrounding high speed chases, how do you guys feel about it?

Ironically Fred, I just posted a story about an off duty cop who shot another driver due to road rage.

This isn't about beating up on law enforcement. I would not want their job and am grateful for their service. But as is the case in public service common sense must prevail and there has to be accountability when there is none applied.

From what I can tell, cops love high-speed chases, and it seems there is near zero liability for the cops if it gets ugly.

Let's hope the others involved are OK.

I hope everyone is OK.
When you make the decision to run from the cops, you have accepted your fate.

Not meaning to beat up on law enforcment. I appreciate the job they do for us, have friends on the force, and I would not want their job. But any body who knows this area, would say that there was no reason for this small town cop to have chased this car so far out of his jurisdiction, with heavy traffic like it was. If you have not caught the guy in 15 miles, and 3 towns away, and he has already smashed two other cars off the road, maybe it is time to call off the chase. Most high speed chases seem to end the same way. I know the adrenaline gets pumping in this scenario, and it is probably hard to call it off , but tonight's result is some poor joe, on his way home from work ,who will probably never walk right again, if he even lives. It pisses me off. The bad guy walked away from it. I heard the police tell him " you done fvked up son" .

Fastfred you're right in first post saying the only reason the cops should have been in pursuit was if the bad guy just killed and was threatening to kill more people...

Preservation of life is the utmost importance...hopefull they had a REAL good reason to push a chase to the limit like this.

God Bless the victims.

I misread as I thought the fleeing driver was the one who was hurt bad in the legs.

Same here

The other side is, if you are trying to escape the police, all you have to do is head toward traffic and they wave bye bye . . .

I think the blame goes to the idiots that run.It goes from bad to worse.i am probably in the minority, just my opinion.

F the fate of the bad guy. It's the collateral damage that sucks. But yes let's hope all those folks are OK.

In el lay they are supposed to break off the chase if it gets crazy. Not sure how often they do tho. And around here the media loves a chase. It almost seems like they help to encourage these idiot's 15 minutes of fame.

I just talked to my cop buddy, he was involved in the chase. Our municipalilty called off the chase at the border of our township, but the officers from the first small town further out, who had originally tried to stop the car, kept in pursuit, and stayed on him until the time of impact. They had him clocked at 110 just before the he struck the other car
It is no big secret around here that all the local police profile people. The highway where the crash happened is nicknamed "heroin highway". It is a main road from the city out in the the rural suburbs . We are sort of out in the country, so when they see people who look like they don't belong here, with tags from certain areas, where there is strong drug activity, they follow them as a " suspicious vehicle " That is exactly what happened here. They followed him for a few miles, and then he pulled a u turn, and tried to run.
The bad guy is an illegal from el salvadore, no license, insurance, not his car, and whacked out of his mind on pills. He is being deported after he serves his time here. From the sounds of it, it may be vehicular homicide. They are not sure if he victim is going to make it, I guess he was in pretty bad shape.

Hard to believe the Audi driver survived.

Man Arrested Following Butler Co. Police Chase, Crashes « CBS Pittsburgh

^^This^^

Being an urban center and familiar with high speed pursuits, this is what usually happens even though the media does love it. Besides, we have the availability of helicopter pursuit (as well as all those news choppers) so the likelihood of escape is slim for a runner.

Even with all this, some runners are just nuts. Two days ago, the CHP was pursuing a motorcyclist on the freeway, clocking speeds at over 100mph. When the cyclist left the freeway, they called off the pursuit as he was now on heavily traveled surface streets. Regardless, the cyclist sped recklessly through the city, ran a red light and T-boned a mini van. He was traveling at such a high rate of speed that his motorcycle caused the van to flip over three times. He, of course, was killed, but so was the grandmother and baby that were innocent victims in the van.

Your favorite eatery is Taco Bell?

I'm guessing small rural PD's don't have helicopters?

If a helicopter is available doesn't make more sense to call them in and the chopper follow the offender?

Or I'm sure all PD's have radio's...call it in... surround the bad guy and follow at a distance until he runs out of gas?

As has been said, it is not about the bad guy... it is about the Innocent bystanders that get hurt.

Run for the border my friend!!!. not.

i have that exact model A6 . that car i a friggen Tank by modern standards. If he had been drivin a prius hed be toast..

LOL I was watching the video, and they even have a Taco Bell cup on the ground. The intersection has Taco Bell and Wendy's.

The way I see it, rural Pa was victimized by a Mexican drug cartel that is based in California. The local small town P.D. didn't have a policy that contemplates such an individual, and in the future will hone it's response to either apprehend the guy with spike strips, or break off the chase.

naw..
flip the switch and of they go..
BTW..what's with those slow cruisers they all seem to drive..
friggin Yugo blasting down the street at 80 plus..
wait a few seconds..
here comes the Barney's.....
all 50 of them..
he stops..
they pile on..
he collects 10 million..

Rika

I guess just to get pissy......what Job do they do for us most the time?..I mean the traffic cops..
We have all had our fill of unjustified tickets and Pius cops
They will write you a ticket for sneezing wrong ..yet their "bros' get away with murder..and if you take issue with this you know not what is really going on.
There is the "blue line" in the sand ..it depends on where you stand

With Ya Mr. !

I keep thinking about the poor guy that got hit. The OP's description of him screaming stuck in my head and has been troubling me.

Prayers for him.

Just talked with my cop buddy again at the end of the day. He stopped , and talked with the parents of the victim. Yesterday, at the scene, they were sure he would not have made it, then there was talk of him loosing both legs.
I guess he made it through surgery, and is doing well, and will more likely than not keep both legs, and be able to walk.
His screams, and the visual I got yesterday, haunted me a little also.. I had a hard time sleeping, could not stop thinking about it. Glad to hear he will be o.k. I am guessing he has a long recovery road ahead.
Cop..... " why did you run? " translator for the bad guy " because you were chasing me" . I guess this went on for hours.

What I don't understand with all the technology we have now a days is why thy can't come up with something to immobilize the running car? Even a taser type device in your cars' bumper to shoot at the runner and overload their electrical system....
Or, add a kill switch to the black boxes put in cars so LEO can shut it down remotely.

Problem solved

have heard about this harpoon thing they have..
they got to get close..
and then hit the car..
alas..
those 50 cruisers never seem to be in the game....

Rika

Dearborn, Michigan police are infamous for their chases, usually over parking tickets and dumb stuff.

Yep, that happened to me once.

Cops came flying out of a parking lot and got up behind me for no reason at all, I was doing the speed limit. They kept creeping up until they bumped me, I almost lost control of my motorcycle.

I dropped it down a gear when they backed off and went from 45 mph to 100 mph, they gave up trying to intimidate me and were a dot in my rear view mirror.

Chases like this are supposed to be broken off for just this reason. IMO the cop that didn't break off is as responsible for this as the suspect. You can't expect good judgment from the suspect, so it's up to the police to have it. The poor guy in the Audi deserves a huge settlement from chasing cop and his police department. If true sanctions existed for poor judgment like this, I'm sure it wouldn't happen as often. Pursuing cop deserves some time in prison, IMO.

OnStar introduces remote immobiliser

This subject warrants its own thread.

If I were a police officer, my response would then be - okay, no pursuing a suspect, ever. For that matter, no use of weapons or force to apprehend criminals, ever. I imagine it would make my life safer anyway, and since that is what the citizens want, well . . .

Must be the cops fault 'cause it has nothing to do with the dirt bags that run from the cops.
Can't blame them, they are just victims of society.