USA Today and other national news outlets are shining the spotlight on a lawsuit filed last month by an Arkansas woman against an Arkansas State Police trooper who utilized a Pursuit Intervention Technique (PIT) maneuver to flip the vehicle she was driving while she was pregnant.
The suit, filed by Janice Harper, names trooper Rodney Dunn; his supervisor, trooper Alan C. Johnson; and Arkansas State Police Director Col. Bill Bryant. The lawsuit claims Dunn used the maneuver “negligently” while he was in pursuit of Harper on Highway 67/167 in July 2020 for speeding.
Dunn’s dashcam video obtained from Harper’s attorney shows Harper driving with her emergency flashers active on a section of the highway with concrete barriers and no visible exits. According to the suit, this left Harper with no room to safely pull over her car after Dunn initiated the stop.
The video, which went viral earlier this month, then shows Dunn utilizing the PIT technique to flip Harper’s vehicle after about two minutes.
Her lawsuit states the Arkansas Driver License Study Guide tells drivers to “pull over to the right side of the road [and] activate your turn signal or emergency flashers to indicate to the officer that you are seeking a safe place to stop.”
The suit also claims Harper suffered “bodily injuries, mental anguish, humiliation and embarrassment.” Johnson and Bryant are named for being culpable for what transpired, the USA Today article reports.
In a statement provided to Little Rock television station KARK, Bryant defended the use of the maneuver in stopping non-compliant drivers by stating:
“In every case a state trooper has used a PIT maneuver, the fleeing driver could have chosen to end the pursuit by doing what all law-abiding citizens do every day when a police officer turns on the blue lights — they pull over and stop.”
CBS News notes Harper’s pregnancy was not “severely impacted” by the crash and her baby is now four months old.
Harper’s attorney told KARK while his client is seeking damages, her ultimate goal is to make sure this doesn’t happen to another driver.
To access the full USA Today article, click here.
To access the full KARK article, click here.
To access the full CBS News article, click here.
To view the dashcam video from NBC News, watch below.
Featured image: Screenshot of Arkansas State Police dashcam footage
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