Atlanta Police Chase Ends In Crashes With Innocent Persons

This morning we were disturbed to hear of a police chase on Atlanta’s major street that ended in crashes with two innocent motorists.
In the Buckhead neighborhood this morning, a police pursuit of a reportedly stolen vehicle ended with a violent crash with two innocent drivers on Peachtree Road, near Peachtree Battle Ave. (near several elementary schools).
Witness accounts report that at least one innocent driver’s vehicle was propelled a long way after the impact, and we pray that the innocent motorists survived without serious injury. This intersection is also one where a crossing guard helps children cross these same streets to enter E. Rivers Elementary School.
High speed police chases kill hundreds of people each year, and injure thousands. Most of those killed or injured are innocent bystanders who happen to be driving or riding nearby. Although the police usually are trying to apprehend another driver when a chase results, too often innocent lives are lost when police officers insist on chasing a motorist at high speeds through a populated area.
To protect law-abiding members of the public, the proper approach is to follow now-accepted pursuit policies and procedures. A police chase should not occur when the danger to innocent members of the public substantially outweighs the need to apprehend the suspect at that location. We have written often about those needless wrongful deaths and serious injuries caused by improper police chases, as our firm has represented many families who have lost a loved one by reckless chases undertaken by officers acting in disregard of the rights of the innocent public.
We do not know enough about the facts of this pursuit to know if proper procedures were followed. We hope that the proper procedures were observed today, and are increasingly followed by officers, so that the predictable result of more needless deaths of innocent persons can end.

Published on:
Updated:

Comments are closed.

Contact Information