Police chases can be quite controversial, with some people feeling they’re always dangerous and never justified. Different departments have their own policies when it comes to chases, but Arkansas State Police seems to be rather liberal with them. We assume they have some good reasons for that, but we also know they have their haters online. This incident involving a trooper doing a PIT maneuver on a suspect at 114 mph probably won’t win those people over.
Watch a Dodge Hellcat outrun a police helicopter and the radio here.
A PIT can be a great way to end a police chase quickly. There are, of course, other methods for stopping a suspect, such as spike strips or a Stop Stick, but those involve having someone on the side of the road along the future chase route. That’s not always a possibility and those devices don’t always work. But PIT maneuvers also come with a risk that increases with speed.
Like so many police chases, this one starts out nice and calm as the ASP trooper pulls over the suspect. This is why cops always seem so on edge when they pull you over. Some people are wildly unpredictable during a traffic stop, usually because they have open warrants for their arrest. Far too many law enforcement have been killed suddenly in these types of situations.
The other thing that puts police on edge is how people will be nice and cordial and then suddenly they take off, leading officers on a dangerous high-speed chase like this one. Thankfully this pursuit didn’t reach even higher speeds, something which might have been thanks to choice of a Lexus ES350 instead of the suspect’s lack of desire to go faster.
Still, this guy doesn’t go down easy, weaving through traffic and pushing his luxury sedan hard. He even goes onto a pothole-riddled shoulder to try taking an off-ramp faster just to get away from the trooper. We also get to see once again that people need to pull to the right when they see or hear a pursuing police car coming up on them.
After several minutes of weaving through traffic, including driving on the shoulder multiple times, it seems the trooper is more than ready to put the chase to an end. Did he avoid a serious multi-vehicle collision by doing a PIT at such a high speed? Or was this reckless and unjustified? Watch the video and decide for yourself.
Follow The Auto Wire on Google News.
+ There are no comments
Add yours