By Steven Symes 
We’ve seen some violent PIT maneuvers, especially from Arkansas State Police, but this one inflicted upon a fleeing Dodge Ram is up there. Actually, the truck takes two violent PITs as a trooper tries desperately to stop a shooting suspect who was fleeing from police in West Memphis.
Watch an SUV get hit by a truck and then a train.
Like in many chases, ASP was contacted for assistance by local police. With troopers authorized to perform PIT maneuvers and use other tactics at their discretion, combined with more rigorous training, they’re an invaluable resources in these situations.
But first the trooper has to negotiate traffic and road construction that restricts everyone to a single lane of travel on the highway. He gets creative and catches up to the column of police cars trailing the Dodge truck.
The trooper wastes no time, setting up and pitting the Ram immediately. But that first PIT is such a hard hit the cruiser’s front end launches into the air. Somehow, the trooper maintains control after going airborne.
While the truck also goes out of control for a moment, the suspect gets it reined in and speeds around the trooper using the grass beyond the shoulder. He tries slipping away, but yet again traffic and construction gets in the way.
Stuck behind a flatbed semi-truck, the shooting suspect receives his second PIT maneuver. Yet again, the hulking pickup is heavy enough that the cruiser’s front end launches into the air on impact.
But this time the Ram’s rear fender crumples and the front end scrapes along the concrete barrier. While the pickup is badly wounded, that impact disables the ASP cruiser, steam billowing out from a coolant leak.
We don’t get to see it in the footage, but as the suspect continues fleeing with police in close pursuit, he eventually wrecks out. That was thanks to damage the truck sustained during that second brutal PIT maneuver, meaning the trooper’s sacrifice wasn’t for nothing.
Image via Police Pursuits/YouTube