View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2008 > November > 24
Monday, November 24, 2008
Speed can be a sure killer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Someone said something in my last blog entry about the car that recent crashed on 400.
120-plus MPH and all it took was one swerve and it’s the ball game, folks. Ever seen a car going that fast? I mean this guy’s luck was definitely not there as far as hitting the bridge abutment but at that speed, his luck was running out fast because going south on 400 towards 285 gets more and more crowded. From what I can tell they don’t know why he was doing that fast.
Reaction time is almost non-existent at that speed and on GA 400 at that time of day it was suicidal. (That’s not to say that’s what this incident was about.)
I worked a suicide on GA 400 many moons ago before the divider was put in.
A woman going north just north of Northridge crossed the median grass and hit a garbage truck—big garbage truck head on, killing her instantly. No other cars on the road. No brakes just tire tracks with a direct diagonal line to the truck. She had the “Frozen Face” meaning she saw it coming. Arms were broken because she had a tight grip on the wheel. She had some romance problems but nothing serious as far as we could tell. She was young too.
Aside from someone who wants to kill themselves in a car, what many people think is that you’re surrounded by metal that will hold up on an impact. You would be surprised as to how fast the inside of a car folds up on impact. We find wrecks where we have to look for a few seconds to find the body. It’s like a Cocola (remember-that’s how we pronounce it in the south) can stomped on.
Back in the day, vehicle pursuits were called chases. Now, most chase policies are very modest because the chase-ee, ie: bad guy, is out of control and that car isn’t going too far before it hits something or someone. That’s why pit maneuvers are more popular in training scenarios. They work if you can get to them in time. Most chases lasted one or two minutes. Motorcycles were cut or dry. They either got away or they wrecked. You rarely caught one. I can remember several fatalities on motorcycles running from the cops.
In the 70’s I had a 1976 Pontiac Le Mans patrol car with the big 400 ci V-8 engines. It was fast and it was low and flat and would fly. I got into a chase with a 280-Z that went from Fulton to Doraville, Chamblee, DeKalb, back to Fulton, and then Cobb. It took 29 minutes and was by far, the longest chase I was ever in. DeKalb PD had Volares (remember them?) and blew about four of them up during the chase. I was out-driving that guy on the back roads and could almost overtake him on the freeway. We got on the access road and crossed Chamblee Dunwoody at the entrance to 285 West in the air—no kidding—in the air.
Here’s the kicker: I never caught him. Never did.
Here’s the other kicker: Initially, I had pulled him over for laying drags. Not exactly crime of the century.
Here’s yet another kicker: When my adrenalin stopped pumping—and it pumped for 29 minutes, I freaked out. It was late at night and no traffic but later, when I thought and re-lived that chase, I freaked out. At a number of points during that chase, I could have wrecked and done what that guy did on 400 because I was hitting 120-130 MPH in places that weren’t designed for it—namely, well, roads. I went home and did not sleep and I remember talking to my then wife who, now that I think about it, slept through my emotional declaration, and the more I talked the more I realized how close I came to killing myself and whoever else would have been in the way at the wrong time.
I never made that mistake again. I got into car chases again but never let the adrenalin drive the car again, that’s for damn sure. Most chases were the result of a felony and I broke a few off just because it was getting too risky. Like I said, chase policies are modest now days simply because of the risk. No days, I don’t chase cars because I don’t go over 50 MPH and I’m so damn far sighted, the last time I reached for the blue-light button, I accidentally opened the trunk. Not cool.
Vehicle pursuits still occur but the training involves when to shut it down. Most cars have video and the tag number of the bad guy is obtained. Just because they get away that night doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t snatch them later or at least put a hit on their credit score. (That would be really cool.)
Hell folks, you can be killed in a car doing 30 MPH. Reaction time is usually the nail in the coffin. Multiply that at 120 MPH and like I said, it’s close to suicide. Remember that guy the cops were chasing a few years ago from Alpharetta? He wrote a bad check at a liquor store and ended up running from the cops on 400 south. He tried to make the 285 west ramp but was too fast. The car rolled, ejected the driver, who then bounced (sort of) and crossed the median wall, then was hit by the eastbound car? There’s video of it and it ain’t pretty. He probably never knew it hit him but again, NOT PRETTY!!
Even if you do something really, really stupid, like rob someone or re-broadcast a pro football game without the expressed written consent of the NFL, and it seems like escape is the answer, that car will get out of control so fast you are almost certain to wreck. You can’t run from something and drive at the same time. Nobody multi-tasks that well.
Don’t panic, pull over, call it a night. Uh, well, go ahead and confess if you want—we’re good with that too.
