Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog
When will the senseless deaths of innocent Georgians due to police chases stop? I found myself asking this question once again this morning when I heard the news of exactly that, i.e., another innocent Georgian killed last night due to a police chase of another driver. This time is was a completely innocent 19 year old young man out at 7:51 p.m., not late by anyone’s standards. It is just unbelievable.
The tragedy last night occurred at the intersection of Moreland Avenue and Euclid Avenue in Little Five Points, a neighborhood that is densely populated with bars, stores and apartments, that has a high amount of pedestrians walking on the sidewalks and that has very narrow streets that are usually bumper-to-bumper. I live very near this intersection and am very familiar with it. The last thing I could possibly imagine is for a police officer to choose to engage in a high-speed chase into this neighborhood. It was totally reckless. And the chase apparently began on I-20 and continued until the collision at this intersection, which is about 3 miles from I-20. This officer drove 3 miles into this heavily congested city neighborhood at high speeds chasing another vehicle for “speeding and erratic lane changes” and this decision by the police officer resulted in the death of a completely innocent teenager. Help it make sense!
The driver of the vehicle being chased by police is now facing several charges, including murder, first-degree vehicular homicide, reckless driving, possession of a schedule 1 narcotic, felony fleeing among other things. But what charges is the police officer facing? The person who made that horrible, deadly decision to chase her at high speeds through a densely populated City of Atlanta neighborhood ? Any?
The death of this innocent young man last night in Little Five Points comes less than one week since the death of another innocent young man who was simply minding his own business when he was mowed down due to a police chase. A suspect was accused of stealing cash from a Decatur Chick-fil-A after pepper-spraying its employees and police began a high speed chase of the suspect. The deadly collision that killed the innocent young man occurred at the intersection of Peachtree Road at Piedmont Road in Buckhead, roughly 10 miles from the Chick-fil-A. What? Help it make sense!
In 2023, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigated police chases in Georgia and what they uncovered was beyond alarming. The AJC analyzed 6,700 pursuits over five years ending in 2023 and found that nearly half — 3,400 — ended in crashes. At least 1,900 people were hurt in those crashes, with half being bystanders or passengers. During that five-year period, the AJC identified 66 deaths stemming from GSP pursuits, nearly half of which were passengers (20) or bystanders (12). Fleeing drivers accounted for 34 deaths.
Did the Atlanta Police Department or any other Georgia police department or the Georgia State Patrol do anything with this important information? Maybe a change in chase policies? Maybe additional training of officers not to immediately began a high speed chase in a densely populated area? Nothing? This in spite of the AJC’s sending their investigation to the Georgia State Patrol. The GSP did not respond. And apparently, predictably, nothing has changed.
Bringing a lawsuit against the police department is a high hurdle. Municipalities often enjoy sovereign immunity from suits, even when they violate their own policies about high speed chases that result in an innocent person’s death. See, for example, City of Roswell v. Hernandez-Flores, 373 Ga. App. 436, 438–39, 908 S.E.2d 694, 697 (2024), cert. denied (Feb. 18, 2025) (“we first again conclude that Officer Alston’s use of his patrol car to assist the pursuit, follow the pursuit on his radio, and drive to the intersection is too attenuated and remote from the harm to Hernandez-Flores to waive immunity.”) and Phillips v. Hanse, 637 S.E.2d 11, 14 (Ga. 2006) (granting official immunity to officer who allegedly rammed a fleeing vehicle during a high-speed chase on the interstate in a major city, causing a crash which resulted in the death of another driver and significant injuries to three minor passengers, because although the officer’s conduct was reckless, there was no evidence this was done to physically harm the suspect or any other individual). But when an innocent 19 year old is killed who had nothing to do with the high speed chase, it is worth the effort.
Our police departments and the Georgia State Patrol need to make immediate changes in their high speed chase policies. If they don’t, whose child will be next?
Robin Frazer Clark is a trial lawyer who pursues justice for those who have personal injury claims as a result of being injured in motor vehicle wrecks, trucking wrecks, defective products, defective maintenance of roads, premises safety, medical malpractice and other incidents caused by the negligence of others. Ms. Clark is the 50th President of the State Bar of Georgia, a Past President of Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, a Past President of the Lawyers Club of Atlanta and has practiced law in Georgia for 38 years. She is a member of the International Society of Barristers and of the American Board of Trial Advocates. She is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Mrs. Clark is listed as one of the Top 50 Women Trial Lawyers in Georgia and the Top 25 National Women Trial Lawyers and is a Georgia Super Lawyer. Ms. Clark is the co-host of the podcast “See You In Court,” sponsored by the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation. Ms. Clark has tried over 75 jury trials and argued in Georgia Appellate Courts over 45 times.
Robin Frazer Clark ~ Dedicated to the Constitution’s Promise of Justice for All.
