Pedestrians Killed Under Car Chased By Police

[mushroom25]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-37234416

what's the betting this sad event results in the officers concerned being hounded out of their careers, and the police service as a whole instructed forthwith not to chase stolen vehicles........

.....whilst the author of the same sad event is given a few hundred hours community service and has a licence he doesn't have confiscated?

[EDDIE51]

There are already strict guidelines about police 'chases' and when they should and should not be carried on with . In general they will not continue a chase if it is felt that the risk of continuing is greater than that of allowing the car to get away. This will increase the debate. We do not know what the 'chased' driver was wanted for . It could be murder or armed robbery! If it was murder would that change your view of the incident?

[agchristie]

What a horrendous tragedy this is.

I'm not so pessimistic about the outcome for the driver and hope he gets a very severe sentence.

As for the officers giving chase,I cannot imagine what they are going through.I don't know how you would recover from it.

A truly awful incident and devastating for connections of the victims.

[EDDIE51]

The driver should be charged with 'Causing death by dangerous driving' I think it has a 7 year maximum jail term. (or on 2nd thoughts it may have been increased to 15 years recently)

[agchristie]

Eddie - I believe that is the charge.

[mastercraft]

The Police are damned if they do and damned if they don't.
If they do chase, they may be seen as forcing the driver to drive recklessly.
If they don't chase, or give up on it, and the driver goes on to mow down lots of people because he/she is unhinged, unstable, drunk, stoned or whatever else... it will be the fault of the Police for not catching them.
Death by dangerous driving should carry a life term/tarrif.

[Smowball]

It's near where I live - just horrendous. I know the road well.

[mastercraft]

The Police are damned if they do and damned if they don't.
If they do chase, they may be seen as forcing the driver to drive recklessly.
If they don't chase, or give up on it, and the driver goes on to mow down lots of people because he/she is unhinged, unstable, drunk, stoned or whatever... it will be the fault of the Police for not catching them.
Death by dangerous driving should carry a life term/tarrif.

[mastercraft]

Sticky browser here, sorry.

[Smowball]

No worries x

[Old_Geezer]

I think you should get down to the bookies mush. I reckon you could get long odds on that one.

[agchristie]

My odds would be around 500/1

[Gromit]

mushroom25
There are strict guidelines for police persuits, and if in this case, they were adhered to, the police officers involved will not be treated in the manner you assume.

Whoever were driving, as well as the original crime(s) they were being chased for, now face a charge of death by dangerous driving. They are unlikely to get community service for such a serious crime.

A very sad loss of life. I hope that the reason for which the car was being chased was a good one. Not just theft of a motor vehicle or some minor traffic offence. It would indeed add to the tragedy if the persuit was over something trivial.

[vulcan42]

In some ways I blame insurance companies and car manufactures for tragic events like this. If all vehicles were fitted with tracking devices it wouldn't be necessary to chase them when stolen. I recently contacted my insurance company asking if there would be any discount if I fitted a tracking device and a forward facing camera, they said no. There is no incentive to make our cars harder to steal, so the chases will continue.

[mikey4444]

Lets not get too carried away here.

These poor people were killed by the driver of the car, not the driver of the Police car. You only have to watch TV programs like those ones that Alistair Burnett used to make, to see that criminals are never very good drivers.

[Gromit]

// Over the past 10 years, 252 members of the public have died following road traffic incidents involving the police in England and Wales, according to the IPCC.
In London there were 498 crashes involving a pursuit by Met officers in 2015-16. //

Wow, those are alarming statistics.
Nearly 500 crashes in 1 year merits a rethink of how we police such criminality.

[youngmafbog]

Yes, well with your political leanings my guess is you would just let all the criminals go, after all it's not their fault they commit crimes is it?

[Peter Pedant]

yeah eddie is right again
there was a spate of dead drivers
" he's not a bad lad he just like

stealing fast cars" mourned bereft mother .....

[Ellipsis]

Maybe all cars should be fitted with a device to allow police to stop them?

[DTCwordfan]

tragic.....now if the driver had stopped, what would he have been charged with and got as a sentence for theft - a damn sight less than what's facing him now.