Police pursuit deaths on the rise nationwide
Deadly police pursuits are becoming more common and more deadly, according to data from various law enforcement agencies and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
A Channel 9 investigation in February found an average of 10 people a week die from police pursuits nationwide.
Nearly half of those killed were innocent bystanders, according to the NHTSA – drivers and passengers in cars that weren’t involved in the chase, or people who weren’t even in a vehicle.
Number of deaths on NC roads has increased, data shows
New data from NHTSA from 2022, the latest year for which data is available, show deaths from police pursuits were up more than 8% over the year before.
The numbers are worse in the Carolinas.
In North Carolina, 24 people died in police pursuits – 12 of those were innocent people uninvolved in the chase.
In South Carolina, 17 people died – all of them innocent bystanders.
