[basil]

Personally, I have thought for years that most police chases should be banned. This is a case in point—7 people died because the police are chasing a person guilty of a traffic infraction? Good grief!

[4rcane]

maybe come up with a technology that tags the car and monitor it with predator drones, and chase the car from a far distance until the car stop, then move in

[South40]

I believe many of not most California cities do not chase for this very reason.

[WVKayaker]

Personally, I have thought for years that most police chases should be banned.

Yeah, that's right. Let them go. They are just lawbreakers.(/sarcasm)

7 people died because some idiot thought he/she could outrun the cop(s) and drove into a busy intersection without stopping, CRASH. You can commiserate and whine about it, but the facts aren't available, are they? Maybe the van was loaded with drugs? Maybe it was just carrying illegals. Inquiring minds don't really care a whit when idiots take themselves out. The unfortunates who were with them also paid the price, but the cops weren't the reason! Running away from the cops was...

Next!

[Gay State Conservative]

Personally, I have thought for years that most police chases should be banned. This is a case in point—7 people died because the police are chasing a person guilty of a traffic infraction?

A very sad case.But why did the guy run in the first place? I didn't click on the link so I don't know if this question was answered.If the original reason was a minor violation then why not take the $50 ticket instead of running off at 80 mph? Did the guy have drugs in the trunk? Or a dead body? Was the original reason for the stop because the cop ran the plate and found that the car was stolen...or the owner had a murder warrant out on him?

If word gets out that all you have to do to avoid being pulled over is to *refuse* to pull over when you're "lit up" can you imagine the field day that crooks....really *serious* crooks (rapists,murderers,etc) would have?

[Yogafist]

Yep, they should have just let this guy go. I’m sure his conscious would have caught up with him and he would have turned himself in soon enough.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204146/Girl-17-dead-car-boot-high-speed-police-chase.html

[P-Marlowe]

Personally, I have thought for years that most police chases should be banned.

So, rob a store or murder someone and as long as you can get into a car and drive really fast, you are free. That makes a lot of sense.

Drive fast and the cops shall set you free.

[Quickgun]

I have to agree with you. There have been innocent people killed when police decided to chase right here .Never 7 at one time though.Many cities have banned this practice. Hell, I wouldn’t want my family run over and killed even if the perp in the car had robbed some place,or even killed someone. Why should more people die? I’d say 99% of all criminal arrests are made by going to where the perp lives,and with a car description and probably a licence plate number that is the way this type of incident should be handled. We have radios in police cars to help track moving cars with other patrol cars as well.
It’s not an isolated incident either, this happens often, and there is really no excuse for it. The old saying that it is better to let the guilty go free than to convict an innocent person should hold true here too, as that is what is happening, an innocent person is paying for someone else’s crime.
It’s just as wrong as if you shot down an airliner loaded with people because a criminal was escaping the country on it.Or maybe if an airliner is hijacked, just shoot it down, That’ll take care of it!
Sorry to be on a soapbox here, but it hasn’t been long since the local cops shot up an apartment complex here that was across the street from a restaurant that had been robbed. Was a miracle that no one in the apartments was killed.The perps surrendered, none of them had been hit by the gunfire!

[Tammy8]

The traffic infraction was what brought this vehicle to the attention of the police. Many times when drivers flee police they are fleeing from more serious charges that they are aware of- some have been caught with dead bodies, outstanding serious warrants, drugs...you name it. For whatever reason some flee when they have done nothing but the original minor infraction but when a person flees it is normal for police to be highly motivated to catch that person in case there was a serious reason the person fled.

In a perfect world the police would have a crystal ball that would instantly tell them why the person fled and then they could choose not to pursue those with minor infractions and only chase those with a kidnap victim or a body in the trunk. As it is now the police have no way of knowing without catching the person.

[latina4dubya]

i just now found out that those 5 children (all have died) are the cousins of someone in my church and small group... i found out by way of a prayer request that has been distributed... i cannot believe this is the family of someone i know...