CHP Officer Hit by Suspect on Motorcycle

[bcjack]

CHP Officer Hit by Suspect on Motorcycle

Updated: October 19th, 2007 11:51 AM PDT

Story by kcra.com (http://www.kcra.com/)

ESPARTO, Calif. --
An officer was seriously hurt one mile south of Esparto following a high-speed chase involving a motorcyclist, KCRA 3 reported Thursday.
According to Officer Gruidl with the Woodland CHP, the incident began as a high-speed pursuit that started in the north end of Yolo County.
The CHP officer was chasing a motorcyclist for about 40 minutes at speeds up to 140 mph.
The pursuit continued through Colusa County and then back down to Yolo County.
Two CHP units set up a road block at County Road 23 and County Road 86A in which there was a small gap between two CHP vehicles.
As the motorcycle began to approach the road block, it appeared to begin to slow down and go toward an officer, at which point the motorcycle sped up, went past road block at 80 mph and struck one of the CHP officers standing outside of their vehicle at the road block.
The CHP officer flew 30 feet in the air upon impact and sustained major injures.
The officer was flown to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento by CHP helicopter with a broken femur and broken ribs.
The motorcyclist flew 100 plus feet in air after the collision. That person was life-flighted to the UC Davis Medical Center and does not have life-threatening injuries.
It is unknown why the vehicle was being pursued and the name of the officer has yet to be released.

[bula]

Could this, coupled with Officer Russell's murder, alter the way pursuits are terminated in the future?

http://www.news10.net/video/player_news10.aspx?aid=46963&bw=

[dw]

Could this, coupled with Officer Russell's murder, alter the way pursuits are terminated in the future?

http://www.news10.net/video/player_news10.aspx?aid=46963&bw=This is a dangerous job and over-restrictive policies are not going to change that. Bad guys run and pursuits are a reality. In my opinion, reducing pursuit-related injuries (to us, the public, and the suspect) comes when society takes a stand against such behavior. Running from the police is tolerated by society. Without trying to be cliche, we can send a man to the moon, but we can't figure out how to stop bad guys from running and hurting people? It's not that we can't or that the the technology doesn't exist; it's that we chose not to. I really look to On-Star type systems and society's acceptance as a safer means to end pursuits.

After your first day on the road (or first ride along for that matter), you'll understand that we can write policy day and night, and in the end, on the road, things rarely go by the book. Giving officers the training to evaluate a situation and make competent decisions (and allowing them to make that decision) goes much farther than trying to anticipate every outcome.

[bcjack]

This is a dangerous job and over-restrictive policies are not going to change that. Bad guys run and pursuits are a reality. In my opinion, reducing pursuit-related injuries (to us, the public, and the suspect) comes when society takes a stand against such behavior. Running from the police is tolerated by society. Without trying to be cliche, we can send a man to the moon, but we can't figure out how to stop bad guys from running and hurting people? It's not that we can't or that the the technology doesn't exist; it's that we chose not to. I really look to On-Star type systems and society's acceptance as a safer means to end pursuits.

After your first day on the road (or first ride along for that matter), you'll understand that we can write policy day and night, and in the end, on the road, things rarely go by the book. Giving officers the training to evaluate a situation and make competent decisions (and allowing them to make that decision) goes much farther than trying to anticipate every outcome.

It is all about the money!!! Using technology that is available right this second, we could fix every new car, and almost every exisiting car with the technology to end pursuits within a few seconds after they start. Most all cars nowdays must have a smog check done every other year. When the smog check is done, the technology is added to the car's on-board computer system. All new cars could be equipped with the technology at time of manufacture. Using existing GPS technology, similar to On-Star, it could be done right now. We spend billions of dollars to explore space, all we need is a little part of those billions allocated to get the technology in place. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!!!

People don't want "Big Brother" "spying" on them, the car makers don't want to spend the $$ to put it in without someone paying for it, society in general won't support it, and the politicians don't want to take $$ away from their "Pork" projects...until someone close to them is hurt or killed as a result of a pursuit...Then they ask "Why didn't you have the technology to just turn the car off and end the pursuit??"

Enough with the rant... I believe the technology is there to do it RIGHT NOW...But it is all about the money!!!:hitwall: