Ethics

Another Absurd Police Incident

By Ed Brayton

This happened in Clark County, Nevada, where a police officer was driving 109 mph without his lights and sirens on when he crashed into a truck. The officer died, but the guy who drove the truck is being charged with DUI even though his blood alcohol level was less than half the legal limit.

In the moments before officer James Manor plowed into a pickup attempting a left turn, he was driving his patrol car 109 mph without flashing lights or siren, Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said Wednesday.

The speed was the equivalent of traveling the length of a football field in about two seconds. It gave Manor little time to avoid hitting Calvin Darling's truck May 7. At the time of impact, after braking and trying to steer out of the way, Manor was still driving 90 mph.

Gillespie called Manor's speed in the 45-mph zone on Flamingo Road "excessive and unsafe," even if his lights and siren had been on. The facts of the accident probably will alter the charges Darling faces, the sheriff said.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 30, 2009 (boomark / email).