More people are killed by high-speed chases than by floods, tornadoes, lightning, and hurricanes combined
High-speed police chases kill about 327 people in a given year. That's more people than are killed by floods, tornadoes, lightning, and hurricanes combined, according to some number-crunching done by The Washington Post earlier this week, based on 2007 data.
Innocent bystanders account for a striking 27 percent of those deaths. And 91 percent of chases are initiated in response to non-violent crimes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's database only counts deaths directly caused by vehicles, so if a cop ends up chasing and killing a suspect on foot, that number isn't included here.
Read the Post's full case for cutting down on high-speed chases here, and the points on Priceonomics that inspired the Post's report here.
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