The fact that police pursuits are so dangerous doesn’t need much explanation. According to a study in the National Library of Medicine, There were 7,430 police chase deaths between 1982 and 2004. Over a 22-year period, nearly thirty percent of the deaths were people who were not involved in the chase. With this in mind, I was really surprised when police spotted a 2021 Chevrolet Corvette traveling at 161 mph in New Hampshire, and no one was harmed.
According to the New Hampshire State Police, a soldier tracks an orange C8 Corvette on radar traveling at 161 mph northbound on I-93 in the town of Ashland. The speed limit on that part of I-93 is 70 mph. The soldier cannot engage Corvette in a chase due to C8’s high speed. Instead, the soldier sent a BOLO alert, or Be On The Lookout, to report to other local law enforcement agencies. After the warning, reports came in about a number of sports cars driving dangerously through traffic.
Minutes later, a Woodstock Police Department officer spotted the same orange Corvette traveling 130 mph on I-93, 20 miles north of Ashland. This is roughly where the Corvette will have to slow down as it approaches heavy interstate traffic. The officer was able to order the C8’s driver to stop and detain him until state soldiers arrived to arrest him.
A 30-year-old man from Danbury, Connecticut was taken into custody and charged with two counts of reckless driving and one count of disobeying an officer. While there’s a fair bit of luck, it’s nice to see that it’s possible to arrest reckless drivers without increasing the risk to other drivers in an already dangerous situation.
