If only Officer James Stoudenmire had been going less than 34 mph over the speed limit on his way to back up another officer, as accident reconstructionists found, his patrol car might not have slammed into the car turning left in front of him.
If only Georgia State Patrol Trooper Donald Crozier had paused before running a red light en route to join a chase, as a subsequent investigation determined, his vehicle might not have plowed into a sport utility vehicle.
Two innocent motorists’ lives might have been spared. Two careers might have been salvaged. And taxpayers wouldn’t be facing the possibility of coughing up millions of dollars to make amends for their mistakes.
Last month, a jury awarded a $2 million judgment against Gwinnett County for Stoudenmire’s accident near Snellville, which claimed the life of 52-year-old Willie Allen Sargent Jr. on Dec. 15, 2006.
Trooper Crozier has been fired and is under investigation for possible criminal charges for causing the New Year’s Eve crash in downtown Atlanta that killed Kathy Porter, 54, of Loganville. Porter was the wife of Atlanta Braves athletic trainer Jeff Porter.
Police and experts say accidents are bound to happen with so many officers patrolling the road each day. However, some crashes could be prevented if law enforcement agencies implemented better training and held accountable officers who display a tendency to hot-dog behind the wheel. While Stoudenmire, who was then a 25-year-old rookie cop, did not have a history of at-fault motor vehicle accidents on the job, Crozier had been blamed in four prior crashes since 2008.
The circumstances preceding the two wrecks were remarkably similar: Both officers were responding to calls as backup, and both were reportedly speeding.
The investigation found Crozier had activated his lights and sirens, but witnesses said they did not hear the sirens. Stoudenmire hadn’t activated either.
Col. Mark McDonough, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Georgia State Patrol, said Crozier’s crash prompted him to require every trooper to complete a four-hour training block on exercising due care on the roads. He also plans this year to purchase a new driver training simulator to replicate real road conditions, right down to the distraction of the police radio.
The Gwinnett County Police Department came to a different conclusion after a Safety Review Board Committee, composed of 15 officers of all ranks, reviewed Stoudenmire’s collision. The department determined there was “no reason to change what we already do,” said spokesman Cpl. Edwin Ritter.
A veteran Gwinnett County officer who testified at the civil trial said Stoudenmire should have known the rules for responding to a call, having very recently completed basic training.
Every new officer in Gwinnett and elsewhere in the state has to pass an emergency vehicle operations course before being allowed to graduate from the academy. Gwinnett County has one of the few police departments in the state that require officers also to pass an advanced course in emergency vehicle operations. Gwinnett officers take a three-to-six-hour refresher class every year.
Stoudenmire’s lapse in judgment illustrates that poor training isn’t always to blame for officer-involved accidents, and that police departments often can’t predict what officers will do in the real world, said lawyer Gary Cooper, who represented Sargent’s widow in the civil suit against Gwinnett County.
“You can train people very well, and I think Gwinnett County does train their people well,” Cooper said. “But once you get out of class in the real world, some of us are good and some of us are bad.”
There is no mandatory reporting at the state or national level for officer-involved motor vehicle crashes with fatalities, so figuring out how often they happen is difficult.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration collects information voluntarily provided by law enforcement agencies. The agency’s data shows that police responding to calls were involved in 84 fatal crashes in 2010.
Only half of those calls were classified as emergencies.
Fatalities linked to automobile accidents were the primary cause of Georgia’s officer deaths last year, accounting for six of the 10.
Police officers by state law have broad discretion to disregard the rules of the road when responding to emergencies. They can speed, run traffic lights and weave through traffic if necessary based upon the type of call to which they are responding, said Christopher M. Simon, an Atlanta attorney who has represented plaintiffs in wrongful death lawsuits for 15 years.
But when doing so, officers must activate their lights and sirens to warn motorists. And they must exercise “due care” for other motorists, making sure to slow down as they approach intersections and watch for oncoming cars.
If they don’t, governments who employ those officers are exposed to civil liability — up to $1 million if it’s the state of Georgia, or up to the amount that they are insured if it’s a county (but no more than $500,000). It’s unclear whether Sargent’s widow will actually collect the $2 million a jury awarded her from Gwinnett County, because of the way the county’s self-insurance is set up.
The county plans to appeal the verdict.
Sargent’s widow, Faustina Sargent, said Thursday that she didn’t want to discuss the trial or her husband’s death because it had been such an emotional ordeal that she “just needed a break.”
The Porters also have declined to talk about their loss, although they have expressed appreciation for the support from the Braves community.
Stoudenmire didn’t immediately lose his job after his wreck in 2007. Gwinnett County police said they took into account the circumstances of the accident as well as the fact that he not been involved in any prior crashes when they decided to reprimand him and suspend him for 24 days without pay, rather than terminate his employment.
However, Stoudenmire was allowed to resign in lieu of termination in 2009 after he was arrested on an off-duty DUI charge.
Crozier, 40, had been a trooper for 10 years. He was fired from the Georgia State Patrol in part because he had been found at fault in four prior crashes.
The agency’s investigation of the New Year’s Eve accident also revealed that he did not slow down enough to make sure the Porters’ SUV, which had a green light, yielded to his patrol car before proceeding through the intersection.
Accountability, training and good policies are key to preventing officer-involved wrecks, said Candy Priano, a Chico, Calif., mother who founded PursuitSafety after her daughter was killed by a teenager fleeing from police. Otherwise, she said, the public will lose faith in their police departments.
Priano said families are often told by police and even some well-meaning friends that such accidents happen rarely, as if that should bring them comfort.
“Let it happen to your family, and you’ll see how quickly that one becomes one too many,” Priano said.
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