From news reports I have been seeing across the country, there is a growing tendency for felons to attempt to evade capture by driving at high speeds on the wrong side of freeways. This should become a much more strongly punished offense in and of itself, 25 to life would be appropriate in my view. The high probability of causing fatal accidents makes this deliberate and calculated act akin to attempted murder even if there is no direct action that can be described that way. Unfortunately in a number of cases an accident does occur so there becomes a direct action and if the perp survives that they are likely to be charged with vehicular homicide. When I say across the country I should say across the continent because similar occurrences have taken place in Canada. There are other wrong-way crashes or near misses on freeways caused by driver error and not related to police chases. The signage for potential wrong-way entry to freeways is already fairly obvious to an alert driver, perhaps motion detectors linked to less passive restaint systems is an answer. But it’s hard to design an active restraint to wrong-way entry that does not inadvertently affect legitimate traffic.
I did think of one concept that would work for an active restraint, if a motion detector system identified a wrong-way entrance in progress (on an off-ramp) and simultaneously detected no traffic on the freeway in the approach to the exit ramp then it would be safe to lower a barrier at the point where the off-ramp veered away from the freeway; the driver in error would either see this barrier and stop voluntarily, or run into it and be subjected to an abrupt but probably not fatal stop, while freeway traffic would continue undisrupted, with flashing lights on warning signs to indicate closure of the exit. But this system might cause more unintended accidents than it prevented, so not too sure if it would be a good improvement.
I agree reckless regard for innocent human life deserves a harsh penalty. And we used to serve it, but the do-gooders have ruined everything.
Stealing a car used mean 2 to 10 years at San Quentin under California law. I bet they don’t even bother to record it now, except maybe for insurance purposes. Our “leaders” have created a hostile living environment, dangerous to everyone, business, and the public purse.