On-duty police deaths may hit 70-year low in 2013 [View all]
In the 1968 movie "Bullitt," actor Steve McQueen plays a police detective who floors his Mustang GT in a tire-screeching car chase up, down and over San Francisco's hills.
Fast-forward to the 21st century: Traffic accidents have exceeded gunfire as the leading cause of police on-duty deaths for 14 of the past 15 years.
A 2011 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study of 733 fatal police crashes found half involved only the officer-driven vehicle. Forty-two percent of the officers who died didn't have their seat belts on.
"It's ironic that police officers present the greatest dangers to themselves as they try to help the public," said Pat Tobin, a retired San Francisco police motorcycle supervisor who lectures on officer safety. "But honestly, that is the case."
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/On-duty-police-deaths-may-hit-70-year-low-in-2013-5084998.php
Level as low as anyone has seen since 1944.
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