Accidents Cause More Police Deaths Than Guns.

We see it on television all the time - police cars involved in accidents. But that's television right? Wrong...in fact more and more accidents that result in death are taking place. Some agencies are thinking of ordering speed limits on police cars so that not only the officers but other drivers and pedestrians are safe.

Tulsa, Oklahoma police Captain Travis Yates states, "The most danger officers face today is not guns. It's not violence. It's speed and intersections." Yates is also an emergency driving instructor and owner of the policedriving.com Web site. source

In Las Vegas in just the last few months there have been two crashes that resulted in two dead police officers.

Last year 44 police officers died in crashes and 39 died after being shot by a gun according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, which tracks officer deaths. This year we already have 35 police officers who have died in their cars versus 22 who have died by a bad person's gun. This is the 12th year in a row that traffic-related accidents are the leading cause of death for police.

In Dallas, Texas and Illinois the police departments changed their driving policies to include limits on how fast their officers can drive. The changes were prompted by people who have been killed by police car accidents.

One officer answering a domestic dispute call was driving at a speed of 109 miles per hour without lights and sirens. He wasn't wearing a seat belt and died. This is a horrible story but how the heck could a cop not wear a seat belt and why would anyone drive 109 miles per hour for any reason? (Unless your spouse is in labor!)

The Illinois State Police changed its policy in November. This came one year after one of its own crossed the median on an interstate and crashed into an oncoming car. Two teenagers were killed. The trooper was traveling 126 mph in his cruiser on the way to an accident scene. What is really sad about this story is that the problem had been fixed and there was no reason the officer even had to go to the scene. Even more astonishing is that he was talking on his cell phone and police radio at the same time!

Four times a year police officers in Las Vegas train and must go through a qualifying test with their guns. Training on emergency driving comes every two years for patrol officers and every three years for everybody else. What is being thought of is having new police officers train every year for the first five years of their career. This is when most of the deaths occurs.

Sources

Police Link
National Memorial Fund