Motorcycle police chase causing death

I am sorry he died as a result of his personal choices (expired tags and choosing to run rather than get the ticket). Yes, both sides could have made different choices. Unfortunately neither did.

 

Driving with expired tags is a minor offense. Evading the police and recklessly driving at high speed causing death is a FELONY. I'm sorry for your loss, but your son was committing a serious crime.

 

Of course they "could have" done that.

Well...I imagine if they had chased him at a speed that was less than what he was driving, he would have gotten away.

No. They didn't force him to drive fast and recklessly. He is the one who chose that. In other words, the cops did not "chase[] him to his death." Rather, he led them to his death -- for 30 miles. He is the one who voluntarily chose to try and evade the cops at unsafe speeds. He chose to drive illegally without tags. He chose to drive recklessly. He chose to endanger the lives of others.

Is this the video?

What do you suppose he was throwing from his pockets during the chase?

Ummm...why do you think you need legal help? As you've described it, this has nothing to do with you.

I really don't think you want me to do that.

You're certainly free to advocate the supervisor(s) of the officers involved that this be the result.

I understand your grief over your friend's self-induced death, but the notion that the officers should be prosecuted for anything -- much less murder -- is just plain silly.

 

If a person CHOOSES to ELUDE law enforcement the offender puts not only her/his life in jeopardy, also the lives of innocent citizens, and the lives of the officers sworn to protect and serve the community at large.

As my dad told me many times, "Son, your choices have consequences, choose wisely."

Choose to obey the law and you'll soon discover how uncomplicated your life becomes.

Another version of the story as told by a Waco TV station:

Texas man dies in fiery motorcycle crash after leading officers on high-speed chase

 

Instant punishment for stupidity.

 

Then you have no standing to do anything.

If the family thinks there's a wrongful death claim in there someplace, they can consult an attorney.

 

Just because you're not getting the response you want doesn't mean the other posters are being mean, hateful, or lacking compassion. Your friend made a series of bad choices. Tell me -- if he had killed someone with his stupidity, would you be blasting him for being mean, hateful, and lacking compassion? Would you be looking for justice for the people he killed by driving 90+ miles an hour?

Your fury is misplaced. You should be angry at your friend for making those choices.

 

No, but neither are we going o sugarcoat reality or look the other way when Person B gets blamed for Person A's bad choices (and "bad" is the nicest possible word I could have used.

Yes. A human being who made phenomenally stupid decisions that jeopardized not only his life, but the life and property of many others.

I have a better question: Does no one accept responsibility for their own bad decisions anymore?

I have tons of compassion for the owner and occupants of the other vehicle that this clown totaled. At least one of the occupants of that vehicle was injured. Did your friend have sufficient insurance to cover what he did?

Your post was full of venom directed at cops who were just doing their job and zero recognition of the awful decisions and actions made and taken by your friend. That is why you got the backlash you got. And now, you've only acknowledged his bad decisions with a "yeah but" statement that attempts to redirect blame on the cops.

Proof? Well...that's in the eye of the beholder, but there unquestionably is evidence to that effect.

 

Couldn't he have just pulled over? Then later after receiving the ticket pulled away and gone down the road. Once he decided to run... It was no longer just a plate issue. He became a bigger criminal by fleeing. He put others at risk. Simple thing in this world. Just follow the rules.

 

I'm sorry for your grief, but he did it to himself. Why didn't he just take the ticket he would have gotten had he stopped?

 

My guess is that once the officers/deputies learned about the warrant(s) that DUDE already knew about, the ticket became the least of his worries.

Dude knew those warrants wouldn't allow him to pass "GO", but send him directly to the nearest hoosegow.

I suspect the moment DUDE thought the police knew, too, he made good his initial escape.

Sadly, as most of these events end; death, sorrow, remorse, carnage, pain, and spilled blood resulted.

 

I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. For the benefit of others reading this thread, he's what a news account of that incident states:

According to Clay County Sheriff Jeff Lyde, law enforcement initially tried to pull the driver over in Henrietta. The driver refused to stop and led law enforcement on a chase, reaching speeds of up to 105 MPH on Highway 287. While the chase was happening, the motorcycle driver reportedly was slowing down and throwing things away from the motorcycle.

The chase continued west into Wichita County, eventually entering Wichita Falls city limits. Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said witnesses report seeing the motorcycle driver put his head down, increase his speed and run the red light at the intersection. He then hit the front left side of the SUV; the motorcycle exploded on impact and was engulfed in flames.​

It's a tragic event, but one that your friend could have avoided had he simply stopped when the cops went to pull him over. Why didn't he? The report that he was tossing things away as he drove offers a clue: tossing things out suggests he had some kind of illegal contraband, whether drugs, guns, stolen goods, or whatever, that he wanted to dump so that he could not be charged with possessing them and whatever offenses might be tied to those goods. So, to try to avoid getting charged with that, he ran instead of pulling over. Unfortunately for him, running is also a crime, and in driving in the manner that he did — driving at speeds up to 105 mph, running red lights, etc., he committed various traffic offenses too. Those were all HIS decisions. Had he not made those decisions, the outcome would have been different. He may still be alive, albeit in jail facing who knows what criminal charges. Because his own actions were the primary cause of his death, the cops and the county would have no civil liability here. Nor did the cops commit any crime in chasing him. Indeed, the law expressly permits cops to chase suspects.

Now, it is true that if the only thing the cops were pulling him over for was a license violation they probably should not have chased him as they did. But the reason for that is not your friend's safety, it's for the safety of others who might be hit by the fleeing suspect. Indeed, that happened here; the two people in the SUV were injured in the collision and those injured persons would have a good claim to sue your friend's estate for the damages they incurred, and perhaps even the cops for their role in the chase. They were the real innocent parties in all this.

Your friend, though, died because he was the one who made the choice to go on that high speed run to try evading the cops. That's on him. I realize that's not what you want to hear since you were close to him. But I think you'll need to accept that while your friend may have had a lot great qualities that you liked in him, he was not perfect and made some bad choices that day and it was because of those choices that he died. You may also not have known about whatever criminal activity he was apparently into that prompted him to run in the first place — more bad choices on his part. That doesn't diminish his value to you as your friend, but it does mean that his death is primarily his fault, not the cops' fault.

 

Very nicely said, TC. Kind and thorough.

 

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