Spike belts can kill.

[argonsagas]

This article from Canadian Press caught my attention this morning.

As I read the article I began thinking that one seldom hears/reads about harm caused to the public by police ...and that police are only rarely, if at all, held accountable for the damage/harm they cause.

In this case, a woman was killed after her vehicle was disabled by spike belts that police deployed well in advance of the arrival of someone they were chasing.

EDMONTON — Officers have found a stolen car used to flee a deadly hit-and-run following a high-speed police chase on the weekend, and they continue to search for a suspect.

The Honda Civic was recovered early this morning outside Edmonton.

A 45-year-old woman was struck and killed Saturday after her vehicle was disabled by a police spike belt during the chase, and she got out to check on the damage.

Police say the pursuit began after RCMP in Beaumont, just south of Edmonton, tried to arrest a suspect in a parked truck.

They say the driver sped off and later rammed an RCMP vehicle.

Police then deployed the spike belt, which disabled several civilian vehicles as well as the suspect's truck, and the truck hit the woman.

Police say the resident of Fort Saskatchewan had stepped out of her car to see what happened.

They say the suspect fled again, this time in the Honda Civic, with a child inside. The child was later found unharmed.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is investigating.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press

.

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/woman-stopped-check-police-spike-185255986.html

[bccap]

Let's not get carried away here. The villain is the guy in the stolen truck that struck and killed the woman .....

[Vmass]

Let's not get carried away here. The villain is the guy in the stolen truck that struck and killed the woman .....

No disagreement here, but who is the dumb*ss?

[LAB3]

I wasn't there to see what happened but considering that there where other vehicles that where also disabled besides the one driven by the woman who was killed I'd venture to say that someone dropped the ball big time.

[GS1150Pilot]

And here I was, wondering whether Sid Vicious was being called to account ...

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[Rob S.]

And here I was, wondering whether Sid Vicious was being called to account ...

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Moi aussi. Here in the lower 48, I believe they're (the police tool) referred to as 'strips', not belts. Favorite appearance in a movie: Heat.

[argonsagas]

I wasn't there to see what happened but considering that there where other vehicles that where also disabled besides the one driven by the woman who was killed I'd venture to say that someone dropped the ball big time.

That was my thinking, too. It appeared to me that the spikes were not timed for the arrival of the intended vehicle but instead were deployed much too early,and this early deployment by police is what led to multiple vehicles being disabled and, ultimately, it was this act of too-early deployment that led to the woman losing her life. .

Reasoning:
It is not clear how long it took for the woman to stop her vehicle after losing her tires, but clearly she had plenty of time to bring her vehicle safely to a halt and park it before opening the door to get out.

It is also not stated how long she was out of her vehicle before impact, but it appears that she was looking at her tires, so a fair guess is not less than twenty seconds and perhaps more than thirty seconds had already passed between the moment she hit the spikes and the offending vehicle arrived to kill her.

[LAB3]

That was my thinking, too. It appeared to me that the spikes were not timed for the arrival of the intended vehicle but instead were deployed much too early,and this early deployment by police is what led to multiple vehicles being disabled and, ultimately, it was this act of too-early deployment that led to the woman losing her life.

I'll just leave this here.

https://youtu.be/0KRpfpkpwKg?si=FsNbVpcEtEjD_6Cb