Seven Injured After Police Chase in Prince William County
According to authorities, the chase began when a police officer noticed a car driving erratically on Fort Belvior in Prince William County; the minivan also had a busted taillight. The police officer followed the van, which began to accelerate in an apparent attempt to elude the officer. The chase eventually came to Interstate 95, with the driver reaching speeds of 100 miles per hour. The driver ran off the left side of a highway off-ramp and the vehicle overturned; four occupants of the van were thrown form the vehicle, and all seven of them—the oldest only twenty-three years old—were flown to a nearby hospital for treatment.
As a personal injury attorney based in Virginia, I have seen too many accidents caused by reckless driving not to be dismayed by this report. If you are being pulled over by a police officer, the correct thing to do is bring the vehicle to a stop; attempting to evade police is never okay, and as we see in this accident, it can cause serious harm. While we don’t know all the details of the crash, I know that the occupants of the vehicle may have grounds to file a personal injury lawsuit against the driver, given that she caused the crash and injured many of her passengers.