Posted on 06/10/2021 5:26:05 AM PDT by ScubaDiver
Nicole Harper says the PIT maneuver 'placed her life and the life of her unborn child at risk'
An Arkansas woman is suing an Arkansas State Police officer who she says "negligently performed" a Pursuit Intervention Technique (PIT) maneuver that resulted in her car flipping over on the highway at 60 miles per hour in July 2020.
Nicole Harper, who was pregnant at the time, was clocked going 84 mph in a 70 mph zone last summer, according to the lawsuit. Within seconds of Arkansas State Police Officer Rodney Dunn turning on his patrol cruiser's overhead lights, Harper pulled over to the right lane, turned on her emergency blinkers, and slowed to 60 mph.
She was "unable to safely stop her vehicle on the right or left shoulder due to concrete barriers and a reduced shoulder being on both sides of the road… leaving [her] with no room to safely pull over her car," the lawsuit states.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Harper also contests that she did exactly what she learned to do in driver's education when being stopped by a police officer."Pull over to the right side of the road – activate your turn signal or emergency flashers to indicate to the officer that you are seeking a safe place to stop," the Arkansas Driver License Study Guide reads.
Sometimes, police and the departments that employ them are their own worst enemy. They never seem to miss an opportunity to demonstrate they're government employees. According to reports, this imbecile is still on the job.
If a cop decides he wants me to pull over, on a road with no shoulder, then I will move over as much as I can, and stop in the traffic lane. It will have been HIS decision to want me to stop there.
I doubt that the cop knew she was pregnant, so that shouldn’t be the issue.
There are two sides to every story. If there was no room to pull over due to concrete barriers, then there was no room for the cop to perform a PIT.
In my area, the interstates are marked as 55 mph, and the routine flow of traffic is 80 mph.
Well both sides of this story are on video. Clearly the woman wasn’t trying to flee. The cop was power tripping. And likely should find another line of work.
Really. It was her decision to speed...while pregnant.
Don’t speed.
I always thought the PIT was reserved for pursuits when the pursued vehicle is a danger to traffic or the public. They usually just chase until the perp makes a mistake or runs out of gas/stops from spike strips.
This seems like really extreme overreaction by the cop. Strange policy if they PIT after 30 seconds.
Don’t speed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, good luck with that. Just keeping up with traffic so that one doesn’t get run over or have endless maneuvers being made close around one’s vehicle means by definition that one must speed.
Oh please. 84 in a 70? Guess he should have shot out her tires if the PIT maneuver didn’t work.
The cop was in the wrong. Period. I hope he gets whats coming to him.
“I doubt that the cop knew she was pregnant, so that shouldn’t be the issue.”
It is an issue for influencing jury emotions and damages.
yeah, I agree, this was an extreme over reaction by the police officer that put the woman and anyone else in the areas life in danger over basically nothing. This would be like spraying bullet into a crowd because someone jaywalked!
That is true.
But if you’re keeping up with traffic and not posing a hazard, then it’s not likely you’ll get pulled over either.
There has to be more to the story about why he pulled her over.
Having been trained in using the PIT any thing over 30mph is considered deadly force.
Using at 60 in this situation doesn’t on the face of the story seem proper.
“Both guilty of stupid”? What did she do wrong exactly? She slowed down and put on her flashers. Any cop with an iota of common sense would know she wasn’t trying to flee. I likely would have done exactly what she did.
>>Having been trained in using the PIT any thing over 30mph is considered deadly force.<<
That is really interesting. Puts a different perspective on the story for sure.
So the penalty for speeding, 10-15 mph over the speed limit and likely going with the flow of traffic, slowing down, moving the right lane, putting her blinker and hazard lights indicating that she acknowledged she was being pulled over but waiting to find a safe place to do so, that IYO justifies the cop ramming her from behind and flipping her car over? SMH
The video I saw started with her passing him at that speed. I am guessing that is what set him off.
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