Sometimes, people make mistakes because they feel pressure. For instance, you might commit a crime such as shoplifting if you don’t have a lot of money. That’s a bad habit to get into, though, regardless of the excuse you devise.
If the police come after you because you committed a crime, you should turn yourself in, but some people compound the problem by trying to run. If you’re in a car, and the police attempt to pull you over, you might even panic and drive off, with them in pursuit.
These high-speed chases can be lethal for other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, and so forth. The police will add resisting arrest and probably reckless endangerment to the list of crimes they already plan to charge you with if they catch you.
You might wonder who’s responsible for high-speed chase damages. Let’s talk about instances where you’re the one legally liable if you try to flee from the cops in a vehicle.
You Emotionally Traumatize Someone
Maybe your high-speed chase causes someone emotional distress. You did not injure the person physically, but perhaps you hurt one of their family members.
Your high-speed collision has had a side effect in these cases. If the person who feels emotional distress needs to seek therapy or go on anti-anxiety mediation because of what happened, the court might find you liable and order you to pay for that.
This is an interesting legal scenario where your high-speed chase impacted someone, if not directly. It’s just one of the reasons why you should pull over if the cops try to arrest you when you’re in your car.
You Ignore Speed Limits
Ignoring speed limits and tearing through intersections or flying down the highway are not activities the police will like very much. If you decide to flee a traffic stop or for some other reason, and you are going double the speed limit or close to it, it’s not likely you’ll get away without serving some jail time.
Posted speed limits exist for a reason. If you’re fleeing from the cops, and you hit another car or person going that fast, you are a lot more likely to seriously injure or kill them than if you were going slower. A judge will keep that in mind at your sentencing and throw the book at you.
You Injure or Kill Someone
Killing or injuring someone is, of course, probably the worst possible car chase outcome. Speeding and running red lights are one thing, but hitting someone and killing or crippling them is quite another.
That’s the worst-case scenario that will probably add manslaughter charges to your court appearance. It is difficult to imagine a case where you would not get double-digit years in jail if you drive away from the police, and this is what transpires.
You Damage Property
Property damage you cause when you drive away from the police is not as bad as killing or injuring someone, but you can add it to the bill when they catch you. If you run into a lamppost and knock it over, you will have to pay the city or county back for that. If you hit someone’s mailbox or run it over, you will have to pay them back as well.
Damaging property is almost unavoidable if you flee from the cops at a high speed. The faster you drive, the more likely you are to lose vehicular control, and that might lead to you crashing through a storefront or destroying other property.
Hitting Another Vehicle
There is one last situation where your high-speed antics will cause the police to bring more charges against you, and that’s if you hit another vehicle. Maybe there is someone in it at the time, or perhaps there isn’t. Either way, you will need to pay back that person for the property damage.
If you do run from the police and hurt someone or damage property in any of the ways we’ve described, that’s not smart, but you have no choice but to try to move forward from the mistake. You will need to find and hire an excellent criminal defense lawyer.
They might very well tell you to accept a plea deal. If you plead not guilty, and you then lose your case, that’s when you’re probably going to have to stay in jail for much longer than you otherwise would. Try to learn from what happened and turn your life around from this point forward.
