While we still don’t know what happened to and in James Sikes’ Prius, the recent runaway raised a question for law enforcement: Do state and local police have a protocol for dealing with out-of-control cars? The answer seems to be largely no, according to an informal survey conducted by The New York Times.
Officers in states with large populations and a great deal of traffic — such as Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Texas — all had similar takes on the issue. Mechanical malfunctions are so rare that police have to worry more about dishonest drivers trying to avoid a ticket than out-of-control vehicles.
In the Sikes incident, highway patrol officer Todd Neibert was credited with quick thinking by telling Sikes over a loudspeaker to push on the brake and emergency brake simultaneously. Neibert then pulled in front of the Prius and matched that vehicle’s speed of 80 to 85 mph. He then put his bumper firmly in front of the Prius to keep it from going anywhere. Toyota has challenged Sikes’ account, and the cause of the incident remains undetermined.
Whatever the case, police have few options in the unlikely event of accelerating vehicles over which drivers have lost control. They can deploy “stop strips” to blow the car’s tires, but this has the risk of sending the vehicle spinning out of control. Due to changes in conditions, terrain and traffic speed, officers are left to make judgments on the fly — decisions that must be made instantly and under extremely dangerous circumstances.
