Controversies Surround Police Car Chases

Every year about 300 people are killed in the United States from vehicle crashes during police pursuits. Nearly one-third of those killed are innocent victims unrelated to the pursuit, according to a study by UW researchers at the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center.

Researchers led by Dr. Frederick Rivara, professor of pediatrics, looked at nine years of data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the Crashworthiness Data System of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The results of their work appeared in the April 2004 issue of the journal Injury Prevention.

They examined data from those nine years on nearly 2,700 crashes involving about 4,000 vehicles and more than 3,100 fatalities. There were between 260 and 325 police pursuits in each of those nine years that ended in fatalities.

Of those deaths, about two-thirds were traveling in the vehicle fleeing from police, while 30.1 percent were in vehicles not involved in the pursuit. Forty police officers and 102 pedestrians and bicyclists were also killed during those nine years.

Many crashes occur in the dark, at high speeds, and on local roads. Vehicles fleeing from the police were traveling on average more than 25 mph over the speed limit at the time of the crash.

"High-speed pursuit of suspected criminals by police is controversial," said Rivara. "Given the fact that 300 lives are lost annually and the victims are often innocent people, we have to ask ourselves whether there may be safe and effective alternatives to high-speed police pursuits of suspected criminals."