----- Original Message -----
From: "ganns.com" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "tidepool" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 11:26 AM
Subject: Re: 5-year-old girl killed in police chase (salon.com)
> The way I see it there were three people at fault.
>
> An auto evading an officer is simply asking for trouble. Have they
> never seen any of the "compilation of chases" show? I suppose if the
> slight chance of avoiding a ticket is worth the chance to them.
>
> Regardless of the pursuit laws in that area, if the officer was not
> driving safe enough if he allowed a collision to occur between his
> car and another vehicle.
Okay as a what if.. So the guy your chasing is doing 70mph thru a 45 posted
speed limit.. What is safe but still able to stay on the pursuit?
> I don't know if seatbelt laws are present in every state, but it is
> common sense to use them. There is no guarantee that the child's
> life would have been saved, but it was the mother's responsibility to
> protect her own child until she is old enough to take care of
> herself.
Texas does have a seatbelt law for minors..
> So, except as noted in #3, the child's death required the actions of
> all three people. If Junior Earl Jameson is going to be charged in
> connection with the child's death, then the mother should too. The
> driver put the child in danger one day, whereas the mother probably
> was doing it every day. Although emergency vehicles have
> right-of-way in intersections, I believe they are supposed to stop
> and make sure it is clear before proceeding. With that, I hold the
> officer at fault too.
The way most driving laws for emergency vehicles are written.. You as the
driver of the emergency vehicle are only asking for the right of way. If a
driver of another vehicle cannot move out of the way then the emergency
vehicle must yield. The driver of the other vehicle only has to give right
of way if they can safely. Again in most states responding emergency
vehicles are supposed to stop at red lights and make sure the all oncoming
traffic has stopped before proceding.. At the same time I cannot prudently
see a cop coming to a complete stop chasing someone else traveling alot
faster than they are... It really comes down to what the situtation
dictates.. As a firefighter the law permitted me to exceed teh speed limit
to respond to emergencies but at the same time expected to not go so fast
that I was out of control.
However I did'nt see any mention of an intersection in the article so how
can you blame the officer... In fact the entire article lacks a great deal
of any information so its really unfair to come to any real blame to
anyone... The mother could have had her child seatbelted and the child
remove it just before impact or the seatbelt could have failed.. A tire may
have blown on one of the vehicles causing the driver to lose control and
colliding with the other. We just really don't know....
JM2C
Jon Beets
