Arkansas State Police officials announced that a trooper was retired after he crashed into the wrong car during a pursuit.
The incident happened on Interstate 40 on Sunday. At approximately 8:30 p.m., an officer “accidentally” performed a tactile vehicle intervention (TVI), also known as a PIT maneuver, during a pursuit near mile marker 265.
Officials said officers were pursuing two vehicles traveling at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. One of the vehicles being pursued was a white four-door sedan.
Unfortunately, the pursuing officer misidentified the bystander’s car as the suspect’s car and performed a PIT maneuver, hitting the wrong car and stopping it.
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Arkansas State Troopers conducted a PIT maneuver Sunday to intercept the fleeing vehicle, which turned out to be the wrong white sedan, officials said. (Arkansas State Police)
Dashcam footage of the pursuit shows the trooper’s car speeding down Interstate 40 in pursuit of the suspect. The officer passed several cars before his car approached a white sedan, its brake lights flashing as the officer approached.
However, as the white sedan sped off, the officer rammed his car into the left rear of the sedan, sending it flying onto the shoulder of the highway.
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When the officer made a pit stop, the white sedan crashed onto the shoulder of Interstate 40. Authorities said neither the driver nor his passenger were injured and refused medical treatment at the scene. (Arkansas State Police)
Both the driver and passenger of the stopped vehicle were uninjured and refused medical treatment, authorities said.
A PIT maneuver is a pursuit tactic used by law enforcement to stop a suspect in a fleeing vehicle. The maneuver involved a pursuing officer using his car to crash into the side of the suspect’s car near the rear wheels, causing the car in front to spin out of control and come to a halt.
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The police officer involved in Operation PIT has retired and an investigation into the incident is ongoing. (Arkansas State Police)
State police officials said the officer’s superiors immediately launched an internal investigation into the incident, which is ongoing. The officer involved in the crash, Corporal. Thomas Hubbard has submitted his resignation and has not worked since the incident.
In 2021, an Arkansas woman sued a state trooper for “negligently performing” a PIT maneuver that resulted in her car flipping over at 90 mph on a freeway in July 2020.
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a FOX16 investigation During the year, it became apparent that the use of PIT maneuvers by the Arkansas State Police increased. According to local news outlets, 306 PIT exercises were carried out between January 2017 and December 2020, half of which took place in 2020.
Since 2016, PIT exercises have killed at least 30 people and injured hundreds more, according to the Washington Post. 18 of these occurred after police attempted to stop people for speeding or other minor traffic violations.
FOX News’ Paul Best contributed to this report.
