Ron Ford
A police officer from the Arkansas Police Department is being sued by a pregnant woman for flipping her car as she failed to pull over on time
The woman was Nicole Harper, and the whole incident took place when she was driving near Jacksonville, Arkansas last year in the month of June when she saw a police car behind her signalling her to pull over.
As soon as the officer signalled her, she slowed down to find a spot to pull in.
Nicole claims that the highway shoulder was narrow so she decided to drive towards an exit ramp.
According to her she wasn’t given enough time to stop, although officer Rodney Dunn had been flashing his lights for two minutes straight.
Seeing the situation the officer used Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) where his car edged up close to the left hand side of Harper’s vehicle and nudged it causing the red SUV to flip and smash into a road divider.
In the dashcam footage Nicole can be heard screaming out loud that she is pregnant as smoke billowed from the underside of her car.
The officer showed no mercy and replied telling her ‘this is where you ended up’ Why? because she did not stop fast enough.
Police officers of the department are claiming that Nicole attempted to ‘flee’ and she was risking the lives of the other drivers.”
Nicole launched a lawsuit against Officer Dunn and the Arkansas State Police.
The Mises Institute reports the legal challenge has been brought before the police department for negligently ‘using a PIT manoeuvre and also for the police officer’s failed attempt to check who was inside the car before he attempted the PIT as a result putting her life and the life of her unborn child at risk.’
The official statement from the police department states that Arkansas prevents police officers from having any personal responsibilities when they’re working and grants them immunity from such incidents.
Under the 2016 law code, it states: “The members, officers, executive director, and employees of the Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision shall be immune from suit and liability, either personally or in their official capacity, for any claim for damage to or loss of property or personal injury or other civil liability caused or arising out of any actual or alleged act, error, or omission that occurred within the scope of interstate commission employment, duties, or responsibilities; provided, that nothing in this subdivision (a)(1) of this section shall be construed to protect any such person from suit and/or liability for any damage, loss, injury, or liability caused by the intentional or wilful and wanton misconduct of any such person.
Nicole is still hopeful for results against the police department. She is arguing ‘Dunn chose to use a deadly force against a pregnant woman who was in the process of looking for a safe place to stop’.