In the May 2006 issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, the official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, a group of the nation's emergency room doctors studied deaths in police chases, and concluded those chases were "an emerging public health problem."

The doctors analyzed police pursuits in the period 1982 to 2004, and found there were 881,733 fatal crashes reported to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, leading to 987,523 fatalities. Of fatal crashes, 6,336 (0.7 percent) were secondary to pursuits, leading to 7,430 (0.8 percent) fatalities. Occupants of chased vehicles accounted for 5,355 (72 percent) deaths and police for 81 (1 percent) deaths Almost 2,000 "uninvolved persons" died as a result of these pursuits (27 percent of the fatalities).

The authors reviewed the demographic data, alcohol involvement, road location and mechanism of collision leading to a pursuit fatality. Children and adolescents accounted for 28 percent of all fatalities. African-Americans and Native Americans died at a higher proportion than their percentage of U.S. population.

Alcohol was involved in 4,628 (62 percent) fatalities. Of police officers killed, 20 (25 percent) were by intoxicated drivers.

Dr. Robert M. Miller one of the groups' leading researchers, concluded, "Police pursuit related fatalities are an emerging public health problem that affects suspects, police officers and innocent bystanders alike. More data must be gathered by each state to fully understand the nature of pursuits with a goal of reducing preventable deaths and injuries."

The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine is a national nonprofit organization of more than 6,000 academic emergency physicians, emergency medicine residents and medical students. The society's mission is to improve patient care by advancing research and education in emergency medicine.

Source: Academic Emergency Medicine