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42 die in Kansas police chases in 12 years
Published 12/1/2008 in News : Police
WICHITA (AP) -- Police chases on Kansas roads have cost 42 lives over the past 12 years and injured 37, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Wichita Eagle analyzed state records and found that about 20 percent of those killed were in vehicles hit by fleeing cars.
Such statistics anger the families of victims, who say the toll is too high.
Michael King's 44-year-old sister, Peggy King, was killed Nov. 15 when the Buick she was riding in was struck by a vehicle fleeing a state trooper who was trying to pull over the driver for speeding.
"A lot of us feel that it could have been avoided," King said.
Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tim Stolz acknowledged the problem of innocent bystanders being killed during police chases, saying "One of those is too many."
But Stolz also said the public expects law enforcement officers to pursue and stop people whose behavior may risk others, including traffic violators.
"The police officer's in a no-win situation here," he said. "The people who are at fault in these tragedies are the people who make the decision to run."
The crash that killed King's sister occurred just after 1 a.m. in south Wichita when a trooper clocked a vehicle traveling at 83 mph on Interstate 135. The crash also killed the driver of the car Peggy King was riding in, 43-year-old Mia Cynthia Alberson, and the driver being pursued by police, 24-year-old Jennifer Stilley. Another passenger in Alberson's car, Teresa Phillips, was critically injured and is still in the hospital.
The Kansas Highway Patrol said the trooper appeared to follow the department's chase policy, which encourages light traffic and good road and weather conditions. A local criminologist also supported the trooper, saying Stilley's speeding posed a danger to others.
But Michael King disagreed, questioning why the trooper continued to chase Stilley after she got off the highway and entered an area of connecting residential streets, crosswalks and businesses.
"Why are we chasing people throughout residential areas?" he said, adding that while Stilley's speed was "somewhat excessive" he didn't think it was life-threatening and that the trooper should have stopped the chase earlier.
In total, the 42 deaths since 1997 occurred during 35 chases and happened in both rural and urban settings, according to records from the state Department of Transportation. Eight involved Wichita police and six involved the Highway Patrol.
Kansas City, Kan., police started three of the fatal chases while police in Topeka and Lawrence began two each.
Stolz said it makes sense that Wichita would have disproportionate percentage of the crashes, given that it's the state's most-populous city, but added, "Clearly, we're disappointed that we have that many in our jurisdiction."
The police department changed its chase policy in 2001 after a fleeing shoplifter killed an Independence couple. The new policy required an officer to break off pursuit if they could identify the driver through other means, such as a tag number.
Of the 42 deaths, 24 were drivers attempting to elude police and 10 were passengers in those vehicles. A 1999 crash in Kansas City, Kan., claimed the life of the driver's 2-year-old son.
"All of those deaths are the same. They're all unnecessary deaths" because they were caused by the driver refusing to stop, said Brian Withrow, an associate professor of criminal justice at Wichita State University and a former Texas state trooper.
At 20 percent, the number of innocent bystanders dying in police chases is close to the national average from year to year, said Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminology professor and expert on high-risk police situations. U.S. Department of Transportation records show 424 people died nationwide in 2007 from police chase crashes. Of those, 98 were either driving or riding in the fleeing car and 21 were pedestrians or bicyclists.
Twenty-three people died last year in police pursuit crashes in Missouri, the department said, while three died in Oklahoma. By comparison, nine people died in Kansas -- the most in the last 12 years.
Alpert said police departments have been instituting stricter chase policies in recent years but that officers still make "stupid" chases, considering the risks.
While most departments advise against chasing suspects if visibility is poor, if speeds get too high or if the chase goes on too long, the Eagle found examples of each in the database of fatal crashes -- including an instance of a deputy traveling 130 mph on a highway and a chase that lasted 30 miles.
Alpert added that less experienced officers may get caught in an "adrenaline rush" during a chase or are "not trained well enough to understand the consequences of their actions."
State lawmakers who oversee transportation policy said they didn't see a problem with how state agencies respond to chases.
"We really, really don't need to overreact," said state Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. "The blame belongs with the people who are violating the law and decided to run from apprehension. I would guess in most cases these people have other problems with the law, and that's why they decided to flee."
Many of the reports in the fatal crashes don't list why the officer originally tried to stop the vehicle, although they generally infer traffic infractions.
Eleven of the 35 fatal crashes involved speeding and six were prompted by reckless or erratic driving. One was prompted by an expired tag, one by a cracked windshield, one by a faulty muffler, one by a gas station drive-off and one for running a red light.
The reports also indicate that police began chases in about five cases because they suspected an occupant of violence.
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