DUI Blamed For Crazy Crash In Las Vegas Valley

A central Las Vegas Valley car crash left one person dead after an attempted stop by Las Vegas law enforcement officers, according to police reports. The incident began when a Las Vegas police officer attempted to perform a traffic stop on a vehicle that was operating without its headlights. Instead of stopping the driver sped up, causing the officer to stop and take down the license number. Las Vegas has instituted a “no-chase” policy which means that officers will not give chase during a routine traffic stop to avoid possible injuries to innocent bystanders.

Unfortunately, in this case, the driver’s decision to run proved deadly. A few minutes later, officers received a report of a car crashing into the back wall of Kilroy’s Bar, located near Spring Mountain Road and Decatur Boulevard. The car had flipped upon impact and the driver was pronounced dead at the scene. Preliminary investigative data indicated the driver was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.

Incredibly, the story does not end there. Police set up barricades and police tape around the accident scene while they investigated, but another driver, who was apparently under the influence of alcohol, ran over the barricades and hit a patrol car near the scene of the first accident. Fortunately, this woman was not injured and was booked for DUI. The intersection at Lindell Street and Spring Mountain Road was blocked for several hours while officers cleared the debris and investigated the accident.

NO CHASE POLICIES: DO THEY SAVE LIVES?

There are many groups such as Pursuit Safety that advocate “no-chase” policies. According to Pursuit Safety, restrictive chase policies save innocent lives. Data collected by this group shows that only 12 percent of fleeing drivers are actually felons. The other 78 percent are simply drivers making stupid decisions because of license irregularity, lack of insurance or other “technical” issues.

However, there are also groups that claim that instituting a no-chase policy is a bad example. They claim that many drivers who flee from police are never caught, encouraging others to run rather than pull over. Whatever the truth of the matter, this incident highlights one important fact: accidents can and do happen under almost any conditions. If you are the victim of a car accident, contact an auto accident lawyer from High Stakes Injury Law in Las Vegas today. We may be able to help you find ways to recover compensation for your injuries.