THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100474
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
The mother of a passer-by who was killed in a high-speed police chase has sued the state and two Norfolk police officers for causing the fatal crash.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Circuit Court, claims that state police were negligent for pursuing a drunken driver at high speeds off the highway and onto downtown streets.
The suit also claims that two Norfolk officers, William L. Ross III and R.E. Lee, were negligent for failing to secure the intersection where the speeding van crashed into a passing car, killing two occupants.
The family of one victim, Teresa G. Timms, seeks $15 million in damages.
Lawsuits against police for pursuit crashes are not unusual, and sometimes bring large verdicts. A Florida jury in 1993 awarded $7 million to the family of two sisters killed in such a crash.
That case also led to major changes in pursuit policies by some Florida police departments, including the Florida Highway Patrol, which now limits pursuits to violent felonies only.
Timms, former owner of Guille Steel, was killed with her fiance, Richmond lawyer William L. Rosbe, at a downtown intersection in January 1995 when their car was rammed by a van that was being pursued by police.
The van's driver, Arnold O. Peterson, was convicted of drunken driving and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The 15-mile chase began when police saw Peterson speeding in Virginia Beach.
The Timms' family attorney, Thomas B. Shuttleworth, said state police should have stopped the chase when the pursuit left the highway.
He said police had the van's description and license plate number, and had a good description of the driver, who could have been arrested later.
Also, Shuttleworth said, police could have blocked Peterson's path as he slowed down on Brambleton Avenue for a railroad underpass.
State police declined to comment Thursday. In the past, they have said the chase conformed to department policy.
``I've gone over the policy any number of times in the past and again today and I can't see where we went wrong,'' Lt. Col. Basil Belsches, deputy superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said two days after the crash.
Norfolk police also declined to comment Thursday, but have repeatedly defended their officers.
``Here is a man (Peterson) who had DUI convictions,'' Norfolk police spokesman Larry Hill said soon after the crash.
``If you let him go, this drunk driver could go on down the road and kill someone else. It is a no-win situation.''
The lawsuit accuses the two Norfolk police officers of not stopping oncoming traffic at Brambleton Avenue and Boush Street, where the crash occurred, even though they knew the speeding cars were approaching.
Hill, the police spokesman, has said the officers did not have time to warn oncoming traffic, but they did turn on their warning lights and stopped two cars on their side of the intersection.
A witness, however, said police had enough time to block the intersection with their car. He said a police cruiser sat at the intersection for an entire red-light sequence before the crash.
``It's not just like they rolled up,'' said the witness, Davis Bradley. ``They were sitting there for the entire duration of the red light. . . . I really believe that this accident could have been prevented.''
This is the third lawsuit filed because of the crash. The victims' families filed separate lawsuits last year against Peterson and his company, Nansemond Heating and Cooling of Suffolk, which owned the van he drove.
In December, the families won $3.4 million in an out-of-court settlement, the maximum available from insurance.
The chase began late at night on Jan. 21, 1995, when police tried to stop Peterson for speeding on International Parkway. Peterson had been drinking heavily and had a record of drunken driving.
Peterson led officers from Virginia Beach, Norfolk and the state police on a chase along the highway, then onto Brambleton Avenue, at speeds up to 80 mph. At Brambleton and Duke Street, Peterson's van ran into the car Rosbe was driving.
Peterson was not seriously hurt; Rosbe and Timms were killed instantly.
About 300 people each year are killed in high-speed police pursuits, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Virginia ranked 14th among the states in such fatalities from 1980 to 1994, with 95. ILLUSTRATION: FILE
Teresa G. Timms, former owner of Guille Steel, was killed with her
fiance, Richmond lawyer William L. Rosbe, at a downtown Norfolk
intersection in January 1995 when their car was rammed by a van that
was being pursued by police.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT POLICE CHASE FATALITIES by CNB