December 23, 2002

Letter to the Editor
The Sacramento Bee
VIA: E-Mail

Daniel Weintraub gave us a perceptive analysis of the public policy conflict in hazardous but necessary police high speed pursuits of fleeing suspects ("A public peril: The state law on high-speed cop pursuits," December 22).

His solution bears exploring: a method outside the usual legal liability system to compensate innocent members of the public hurt during a chase.

Abandoning police auto chases would be an intolerable surrender to crooks. But a system to help the injured should not have to go through high-overhead fault finding process that delays compensation, enriches the lawyers, and burdens already-crowded courts.

Better to have a system that can provide swift, predictable, adequate care and funding to someone unfortunately in harm’s way and that discipline’s an officer (instead of fining taxpayers) who conducts a chase outside rules for public safety.

People today are exposed to considerable number of public and private activities designed to promote general safety but which unavoidably cause harm to a few people even when conducted responsibly. The manufacture and distribution of vaccines, seat belts, and air bags are examples.

The public would benefit from a thorough review of products and activities to exempt from the "litigation lottery" and move into a system where compensation would be fairer and far less expensive to administer.

Sincerely,

John H. Sullivan
President
Civil Justice Association of California