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.
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.
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