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An Arkansas woman is suing an Arkansas police officer who she says “negligently performed” an Intervention Technology (PIT) maneuver that caused her car to roll onto the highway at 60 mph in July 2020.
Nicole Harper, who was pregnant at the time, clocked 84 mph in a 70 mph zone last summer, according to the lawsuit. Within seconds of Arkansas State Police Officer Rodney Dunn turning on the overhead lights on his patrol cruiser, Harper pulled into the right lane, turned on his emergency flashes, and slowed to 60 mph.
She was “unable to park her car safely on the right or left shoulder due to the concrete barriers and the low shoulder on both sides of the road… Departing [her] With nowhere to tow her car safely,” the lawsuit says.
The Dashcam video of the accident shows that about two minutes after the lights were on, Dunn hit the expectant mother’s rear left bumper, causing her car to hit a concrete barrier and tip over.
“I thought it would be safe to wait to get out,” Harper can be heard telling Dunn upside down in her car.
“No ma’am, you should stop when law enforcement stops you,” replied Dan, trying to help Harper out of the car. “We call that a hole maneuver. When people run away from us…that’s what happens.”
“I wasn’t running away,” Harper replied.
Den Harper was accused of not obeying the emergency vehicle.
This still image from Officer Rodney Dunn’s dashcam shows Nicole Harper with her emergency flashes just seconds before she performed a PIT maneuver that flipped her car. (Andrew Norwood of Denton & Zachary)
After a ditch maneuver, Harper’s car stopped upside down in the middle of the highway. (Andrew Norwood of Denton & Zachary)
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Her attorney, Andrew Norwood of the law firm Denton & Zachary, claimed the pit maneuver was “deadly force,” adding that the exit was only a mile away and concrete barriers ended about 20 seconds into the road.
“She wants to change the policy,” Norwood told Fox News Wednesday. “She thinks they should look at policies around the PIT maneuver and re-evaluate its use.” “What was done is ridiculous…what was done is extremely dangerous.”
Norwood said Harper had some lingering anxiety from the experience and broke down in tears when she first saw the video recently.
“What should I do in the future? Do I only stop in the middle of the road? Do I lock it up and brake in the middle of the road no matter where I am, no matter what?” Norwood said of Harper’s thinking. “What if I was on a bridge? Because the officer said in no uncertain terms, in the video, ‘It doesn’t matter where you are, you just stop.’”
Harper also objects that she did exactly what she learned to do in driving education when she was stopped by a police officer.
The Arkansas Driver’s License Study Guide reads: “Stop to the right side of the road – activate the turn signal or emergency lights to let the officer know you are looking for a safe place to stop.”
Arkansas State Police did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday.
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A FOX16 investigation last month revealed that PIT maneuvers are increasingly used by the Arkansas State Police. Between January 2017 and December 2020, PIT’s maneuvers were used 306 times, half of which occurred in 2020, according to the local news outlet.
At least 30 people have been killed and hundreds more injured since 2016 from the PIT exercises, according to The Washington Post. Eighteen of those deaths occurred after police tried to stop a person for speeding or another minor traffic violation.
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