A Georgia State Patrol trooper sitting at a gore point on I-20 near the I-75/85 split in Atlanta watched a black Suzuki Hayabusa weave through traffic without signaling, switched on his lights and siren, and the rider’s answer was the next exit. What followed, according to the dashcam video, was a run through the Downtown Connector’s ramps and surface streets that ended with the Hayabusa on a cruiser’s hood.
Video credit: OTSOTRnews on Facebook, showing Georgia State Patrol dashcam footage
The rider left I-20, then re-entered it headed the opposite way, and the trooper stayed behind him. Back on city streets the rider used turns and red lights to open a gap on the first cruiser, but more units arrived. The clip then switches to a second trooper’s dashcam. That trooper parks across an intersection as the Hayabusa comes at speed. The rider hits the cruiser’s push bar, goes over the handlebars, and lands on the hood. The clip’s caption says he was taken into custody. It does not say whether he was hurt, and I could not find a Georgia State Patrol statement on his condition.
What Georgia law says about running from a trooper
Georgia’s fleeing statute, O.C.G.A. § 40-6-395, applies when a driver willfully fails to stop after a visual or audible signal from an officer in uniform with a badge displayed, in a marked police vehicle. A first conviction is a high and aggravated misdemeanor: a fine of $1,000 to $5,000 that a judge cannot suspend, plus 30 days to 12 months in jail, with anything past 30 days open to suspension.
The felony line sits low. As written, the statute makes it a felony if the person flees while exceeding the posted limit by more than 20 mph, striking another vehicle or a pedestrian, causing a crash, fleeing in traffic that puts the public at risk of serious injury, or leaving the state, among other listed conditions. The penalty is a $5,000 to $10,000 fine and 12 months to 10 years in prison. Subsection (d) adds that the sentence cannot be suspended, probated, deferred, or withheld, and the charge cannot be reduced to a lesser offense. I read the code through FindLaw’s reproduction, which carries a warning that it may not reflect the current law, so a lawyer should check the live text.
What the record does not show
The account that shared the clip dates it Aug. 22, 2022, and puts it on I-20 in Fulton County. I could not locate a Georgia State Patrol incident report, an arrest warrant, or a court docket for the rider, so what he was charged with and how the case ended remain unconfirmed. The video does show several things that appear on the statute’s felony list, including a pursuit through traffic and contact with a patrol vehicle. Whether prosecutors charged any of them is a question only the docket can answer.
We have covered similar stops before: an earlier Georgia State Patrol chase of a Hayabusa, an Arkansas trooper’s push-bar stop of a sport bike, and a video in which a Hayabusa rider pulled away from an Arkansas trooper. The bike’s speed buys a lead on open road. In Atlanta the lead lasted until a second trooper reached an intersection first, and Georgia’s statute lists speed over the limit, fleeing in traffic, and striking another vehicle as separate routes to a felony. Penalties for fleeing differ by state; our driving laws by state page is the place to start.
Should a trooper block an intersection ahead of a fleeing motorcycle, or back off and track the rider down later without putting anyone in the path?