The car was speeding down the interstate, attempting to evade police, when it suddenly turned sideways and started skidding across two lanes of traffic as four other cars drove by, police video shows.
The car involved in the pursuit came to a stop after hitting an uninvolved car, finally stopping in the grassy median.
The car involved in the police pursuit had hit Stop Sticks, tire deflation devices which were intentionally placed to stop fleeing suspects, and prevent injury to those on the highway.
Stop Sticks, which were invented in the 1990s by a police officer in Indiana, have successfully stopped nearly 50,000 police pursuits, according to the device’s website.
But while Monday’s incident didn’t result in any injuries, that isn’t always the case with stop sticks. Sometimes those crashes have been fatal.
Colorado State Patrol used stop sticks in a pursuit in June that resulted in the car crashing into the side of a tractor trailer that was parked on the side of highway, KKTV reported. The car caught on fire and the driver later died due to his injuries, according to the news station.
A man in Florida was killed after he drove over Stop Sticks causing the car to hit a concrete sign and catch fire, according to the Florida Highway Patrol WESH reported.
Additionally, at least 19 police officers have been struck and killed by cars while using stop sticks in the past 10 years, the IndyStar reported.
Some police departments across the country have stopped using them.
The Dallas Police Department told 21Alive News that their police officers no longer use Stop Sticks.
And Maj. Philip Ridgell of the Boone County Sheriff’s Office told the IndyStar it stopped using them after a police officer who had been with the department for 20 years was hit by a vehicle while trying to deploy stop sticks in October 2021.
“After we assessed it and spoke about it, the sheriff decided that the risk to use them outweighs the necessity to have them,” Ridgell told the news outlet.
Massachusetts State Police told MassLive that officers have to assess the situation and make quick decisions in regards to the Stop Sticks.
“In determining the use of tire deflation devices, we balance the grave risk the fleeing suspect poses to other motorists and the surrounding community with the possibility that another vehicle could hit the sticks,” the department said in a statement. “This is a decision that must be made within seconds based on the information available at that moment.”
Massachusetts State Police said all of its troopers go through “extensive” training on the Stop Sticks, which involves minimizing the risk to other vehicles. But when using the devices near other cars, there’s no guarantee.
Ridgell told the IndyStar that the Stop Sticks don’t always work either. They favor terminating a pursuit if it becomes too dangerous.
“We weren’t batting a thousand with that,” he told the news outlet. “There are other ways to catch a suspect than in a pursuit.”
A study published in 2023 by the Police Executive Research Forum, a national think tank on policing standards, called for police not to start a pursuit unless a violent crime has been committed and the suspect poses an imminent threat.
The report followed a spike in fatalities from police chases during the COVID-19 pandemic and the criticism of several police departments for the increased use of pursuits, including in Houston and New York City.
“A lot of this has to do with the new thinking in policing today, which is about proportionality,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of PERF. “It’s about the sanctity of life and balancing the risk to everyone. Police officers die in pursuits. Suspects die in pursuits and even citizens can be injured or die.”
The report states that in Minnesota the use of the Stop Sticks when cars are going faster than 40 mph is considered “deadly force.”
Some other options police departments have used include deploying a GPS-enabled tracking device to a fleeing vehicle. The report states police are then able to stop pursuit and can monitor the car’s movements.
On Monday, Massachusetts State Police said they were concerned because the suspects had already been involved in multiple other pursuits with local police.
A 15-year-old was driving the stolen Lexus IS involved in the chase, state police said Tuesday. He is now facing charges of leaving the scene of a car crash causing property damage, receiving a stolen motor vehicle, failure to stop for police, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and a marked lanes and breakdown lane violation.
Two other people, including 20-year-old Fitchburg resident Kyan Perez, who were passengers in the Lexus are also facing charges in connection with the chase, state police said.
“Their continued presence on the roads posed a serious risk to the safety of other motorists, and thus we made the decision to deploy the sticks when we did to end the pursuit,” state police said.
The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
