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San Jose High Speed Car Chase Leaves Six Injured

A high speed pursuit by police, apparently triggered by a motorist running a red light, resulted in a massive accident in San Jose this week.  In all, six people were injured, including a 12-year-old girl who is in life-threatening condition. The incident again underscores the need for safer ways of tracking down/apprehending motorists, without endangering the lives of other motorists on the street.

The accident occurred on Tuesday.  A California Highway Patrol officer was at an intersection, when he saw a Honda Civic driver ignore a sign banning turns at a red light. The California Highway Patrol officer began following the Honda Civic.  When the motorist noticed he was being followed, he began to drive at high speeds. A full on high-speed pursuit was on, and the Civic driver soon ran another red light less than a mile away.  He then broadsided a Mitsubishi Mirage.

The force of the impact almost split the Mirage into two.  A 12-year-old girl in the Mitsubishi was flung from the window. She was critically injured, and is listed as being in a life-threatening condition. Her mother who was driving the Mirage, as well as two other children in the car suffered moderate to minor injuries. The driver of the Honda Civic, Bernadino Cuevas and his female passenger also suffered minor to moderate injuries.  After the accident, authorities discovered that Cuevas had a felony warrant,

Questions are again being asked about whether it was prudent or necessary to initiate a high-speed police chase in a situation like this. Obviously, these are not easy questions to answer. The California Highway Patrol office maintains that its pursuit policies require an officer to evaluate the risk of initiating the pursuit as compared to the benefits. If at any point in the pursuit, the officer feels that the risk of continuing the chase is far greater than any benefit to be gained from it, the pursuit is canceled. An investigation into this accident is still going on. There is no way of knowing right now whether all the criteria for initiating the chase were met in this instance.

The fact is also that a red light infraction is not a minor offense.  However, it is time law enforcement agencies in California considered whether there can be other ways of pulling over motorists who have committed a traffic offense, without high-speed chases that threaten the safety and lives of other motorists. Is there a way for troopers to note down the license plate number of the vehicle and the direction headed, and then allow an aerial patrol to do the rest? Obviously, this can’t be done for every motorist who runs a red light, and again stresses the fact that these questions are not easy to answer. California car accident lawyers don’t want police to be restricted in how they maintain law and order, but there’s no question that innocent people’s lives should not be placed at risk in any manner.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of car accidents and police chase accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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