Phoenix chopper tragedy
It has been a bad week for aviation. From the mid-air collision of two news choppers in Phoenix to the crash of two vintage WWII aircraft at Oshkosh and finally the crash of a stunt plane at Dayton, it has been a grim story. The two news choppers in Phoenix crashed while covering yet another police chase of a carjacker. I have always had a problem with a lot of police pursuits. In many cases I feel that the chases put innocent lives in jeopardy for no good reason. Most of these chases result from people not pulling over for minor traffic offenses. I do not see the need for the police to pursue these people when they already have their license plate numbers and can arrest them later. Only in cases where the person being pursued would present a clear and present danger to others if not apprehended do I think that police pursuit is warranted. I have read several articles where authorities are considering adding additional charges to the person arrested in the Phoenix pursuit. These charges would be related to the deaths of the 4 men killed in the crash of the two choppers.
I find the prospect of such charges to be of no use to anyone and of serving no purpose that I can think of. I cannot believe the families and friends of the victims of the crash would be comforted in some way by charges like this. If anything, this tragedy was caused by the sometimes reckless and needless pursuit of people by the police. Instead new procedures and guidelines should be adopted to limit the number of police pursuits which put other persons lives in needless jeopardy. To blame the carjacker for the deaths is just senseless. Additionally I think that local news stations should not even cover such pursuits. Why put peoples lives in jeopardy for such pursuits. I know I have no desire to watch live coverage of such events, I have much more important things to do with my time. I think all local news stations should announce a moratorium on coverage of such chases with news choppers. I am sure the choppers can be put to much better use. I hope lessons are learned from this tragedy that will results in action being taken by both the police and news agencies to prevent future tragedies like this. Just don’t expect that charging the carjacker will in any way prevent a tragedy like this. Do you really think people think of the consequences of their actions when fleeing the police? That is my take on this tragedy. Let me know what you think.
