She feels forgotten and says that since Friday’s crash in Rockingham County, investigators haven’t spoken with her or told her why they were chasing the suspect, whose car crashed into hers after running a stop sign.

To Young, the chase, which began when an officer spotted a car without a front license plate, doesn’t make sense. Catching a suspected car thief isn’t worth her injuries, she says.

"The officer is supposed to be a trained professional," Young, 48, said Wednesday. "They’re supposed to be protecting people, not hurting people.

"He should have thought, ‘Maybe we should end the chase now before we get to this intersection.’"

Friday’s crash at the intersection of Gravels Road and U.S. 11 spotlights an issue facing departments nationwide: balancing the dangers of high-speed chases with the need to catch criminals.

A spokesman with the Virginia State Police as well as other experts say that police departments continually revise their pursuit policies and update officer training to reduce the risks of a dangerous business.

The Crash And Internal Review

Friday afternoon’s chase began when Trooper C. Depoy II spotted a black Ford Escort on Va. 42 driving without a license plate. After he pulled behind the car, the driver, James Edward Eye, 24, of Hinton, sped away, police have said.

Depoy would later learn he was chasing a stolen vehicle, police say. But, at the time, the trooper chased Eye because of the missing plate and because he’d changed lanes erratically and refused to stop, according to police.

The pursuit continued for about 5 miles, reaching speeds of up to 75 mph in Rockingham County, north of Harrisonburg, said Sgt. F.L. Tyler, a spokesman with state police’s Culpeper district.

At the intersection of Gravels Road and U.S. 11, Eye allegedly ran a stop sign and collided with Young’s 1982 Chrysler LeBaron. Eye and Young were taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center and two passengers went to RMH, police have said.

None of the injuries appeared life-threatening, authorities have said.

Police are still investigating the crash, and Eye had not been charged with a crime as of Wednesday.

Young said she was conscious when rescuers cut her from the wreckage. Her steering wheel was tight to her chest and she struggled for air.

"I’m sitting there wondering if I’m going to live. … I’m praying to God, ‘Please let me live,’" she said. And "I’m hoping that whatever they need these people for, I hope it’s worth it. To me, it doesn’t seem like it was."

Young stayed at the U.Va. hospital until Tuesday night. She’s expecting a slow but full recovery from the injuries that include broken ribs a broken wrist and an injury to her knee, as well as cuts and bruises.

Safety Always A Concern

A state police supervisor is reviewing whether Depoy followed the department’s guidelines governing high-speed chases.

But, based on the preliminary report, Tyler has said Depoy’s actions don’t appear to have violated the agency’s rules.

Department chase guidelines allow troopers to decide when to pursue, but specify what risk factors they should consider. Risks, such as the proximity of bystanders, road conditions and the danger the suspect may present to the community, are some of the elements that should be considered when pursuing a suspect.

After chases begin, supervisors are usually notified by radio and consider whether the chase should continue. That puts a calm decision-maker in the mix, said Tyler, who, in addition to being a spokesman, is a 23-year police veteran and a police driving instructor.

The department’s review of the chase is a personnel matter, he said, so he wouldn’t go into specific details. Troopers do have in-car video recorders that will assist in the review, he added.

Speaking generally, Tyler said the review would include evaluations of the chase and of the department’s pursuit policy.

"We try to keep public safety at the [foremost in our minds] whenever we do enforcement," he said. "Sometimes, people might not understand the methodology that we’re following, but these are things that we have controls and policies over, and they are reviewed."

A National Issue

Around the country, other departments wrestle with the risks of high-speed pursuits, experts say.

Between 2001 and 2005, about 350 people were killed each year in crashes related to police chases, according to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. About a third of those killed were bystanders, records show.

Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, says the dangers of high-speed police chases are well-documented. But it’s up to state and local departments to train officers to put public safety above an individual arrest.

"We’re asking police officers to make a lot of complicated decisions in a very short period of time," Willis said. "But the statistics seem to say, ‘When in doubt, don’t chase.’"

Choices And Training

Several experts who have worked in law enforcement say many departments now restrict pursuits by specifying when chases are necessary and when they should be called off.

It’s an ongoing trend in law enforcement over the last two decades, they say, sparked in part by the realization that car wrecks are the No. 1 killer of police officers.

Increasing officer training is also an important factor in reducing the risk of chases, said Capt. Travis Yates of the Tulsa Police Department’s Precision Driving Training Unit. Yates also runs policedriving.com, a Web site that encourages safety in police pursuits.

As far as training, the Virginia State Police’s policy of updating troopers’ driving skills every few years puts the agency ahead of many others, Yates said.

David Smith, a police consultant from Oswego, Ill., who teaches officer safety, says police are expected to catch crooks and that adopting a no-chase policy, as some departments have done to reduce collisions, is going too far.

"If you publicly announce you’re not going to chase people who run away, then people will run away," Smith says.

Both men say the best policy for the public and police is one that trains officers to drive safely and to assess risks quickly.

"You don’t want to chase everybody all the time; there has to be a balance," Yates said.

But letting suspects go isn’t necessarily the answer, either, he said.

"There could be a serious offense [going on] there. Hindsight is 20/20; an officer never knows [at the time of the chase]," Yates said.

Contact David Reynolds at 574-6278 or reynolds@dnronline.com