There are but they can be bypassed.
Yes I did thanks for reminding me. Because obviously all cops are psychics and they knew that the guy was only running from them becuase he had to pee really bad but the cops being satan incarnate decided to chase him just so he would eventually crash and kill someone and then they could put him in jail. :rolleyes:
The cops don’t know why he’s running until they catch him.
I would be all for a national law that said every department in the US must have at least one helicopter to help prevent innocent people from being injured by high speed chases.
How long do you think it would take to wake Johnny up, get him to the pad, get the bird in the air, and over to the chase? If he’s “on call” instead of at the pad, I’d figure on at least a half hour, even if he’s at the pad, it’s gotta take at least 10 minutes, maybe a lot longer if the runner is doing 100mph away from pad.
The problem isn’t the idiot who’s trying to avoid a ticket, it’s the career criminal who now counts on the police backing off to ensure he doesn’t get caught. I know there are places with a back off rule, I wonder if it’s had a negative effect on crime rates?
Seems to me a road block, particularly on the freeway would be a better solution.
Whether the car is stolen or not, the license number and description are known.
Because this isn’t Nazi Germany.
Actually, my understanding is that cars can and do have speed limiters; they’re set higher than 75 mph, though. With computer-controlled engines, the technology is certainly available to have a speed cut-off limit without affecting horsepower. Although I could be wrong; I’m basing this on the word of people on car message-boards. My guess would be that a car that only goes to 75 would lose sales, so nobody’s going to manufacture such a car, since there’s no advantage to the seller.
Do some Western states still have a prima facie speed limit?
Yes, I’ve been driving a very long time.
I’ve seen enough police chases on SpikeTV to have learned that road blocks aren’t the end-all to car chases. Additionally, they only work if the driver is on a road where the police will have enough time to mobilize and the driver can’t divert to another road. Even given those, drivers can and will circumvent a roadblock, and occasionally crash through and continue on.
You got me there, I don’t watch Spike. 
I am unaware of any such laws. I would be interested to hear of them if anyone can produce one. Typically today’s cars are limited to a certain top speed by the onboard computer. I know my car from the factory is chipped to not go more than 108 mph. The chip can be replaced to allow the car to go faster, but I don’t think it would help much with my car.
0-Godwin in 25 posts!
You just can’t chase that kind of speed!
Even they wouldn’t have done such a thing… metric system, you know.
So let’s say high-speed chases are banned. The fleeing offender, who has already shown either a blatant disregard for traffic laws or is a horrible driver who needs to be off the road then goes on to commit another traffic offense. Maybe the driver blows through another red light that results in the fatality of an innocent bystander. Who do you think is going to be blamed at that point? I’ll tell you who, it’ll be the cop for not apprehending him before the crime was committed. It seems like a no-win situation all around.
There are not any such laws to the best of my knowledge. some car makers put speed limiters on their cars, but not due to US law.
Not really, because even Hitler liked fast cars and freeways. Duh:
Then cops would keep mats with nails in them in their trunk, stop traffic ahead of the guy so he doesn’t hit anyone if he crashes and toss the mats on the road.
Isn’t this the assumption which is at least part of the pit?
Yes, career criminals run red lights. So do kids in their dad’s car. So do drunks. So do all sorts of other people.
Only X proportion (because I don’t have any statistics) will run through more red lights.
Only Y proportion would not pull over if the police chased them after running a red.
Only Z proportion would continue to try to outrun a police car for twenty minutes.
From their willingness or otherwise to pull over, you cannot assign guilt or blame for anything other than their failure to stop.
Okay, I understand "rams an oncoming semi; however, I’ve no idea what “Play ‘england!’” means.
This expression, I like.
Dammit GorillaMan, will you dummy down that last post for those of us who don’t speak British?
And again, I’m not saying the bad guy isn’t responsible, but it takes two to rassle. If the cops back off, then it would be safe to assume the bad guy will likewise assume a less conspicuous interpretation of “reasonable or prudent speed.” He may get away with his special crime this time around, be it a simple “woops!” at a traffic light or interstate transport of contraband, but at worst he simply remains “at large” and not a contributor to fatality stats. The alternative is that he will drive recklessly until he runs into something at a high rate of speed, or with any luck he will run out of gas, but that means he will lose a great deal of braking/steering power when his engine shuts off. Which is not entirely safe either.
Monty, people in England drive on the wrong side of the road. Have you never done this to freak out your passengers?
Ah, yes. I guess I was trying to figure out how that could be a football/soccer reference.
Nope. My passengers and I are quite fond of living.