High Speed Police Chase Ends in Wreck in Cobb County

A 21-year-old man has been arrested in Cobb County after being accused of carjacking a woman at gunpoint and leading a police chase that wound up maxing out at 110 miles per hour.

The police chase ended in a crash into a tree off of South Marietta Parkway. The car was completely totaled as a result.

In today's post, I will cover one of the offenses that the young man has been charged with. He is facing some serious felonies, including fleeing or attempting to elude. This is a charge that covers police chases and any time that a person avoids being pulled over or arrested by a police officer.

The law behind this offense is relatively complicated because there are different portions of the law that dictate the level of the severity of the offense as well as the consequences if convicted.

Fleeing or Attempting to Elude in Georgia

Fleeing or Attempting to Elude in Georgia is defined by Georgia Law in O.C.G.A. §40-6-395 as:

It shall be unlawful for any driver of a vehicle willfully to fail or refuse to bring his or her vehicle to a stop or otherwise to flee or attempt to elude a pursuing police vehicle or police officer when given a visual or an audible signal to bring the vehicle to a stop. The signal given by the police officer may be by hand, voice, emergency light, or siren. The officer giving such signal shall be in uniform prominently displaying his or her badge of office, and his or her vehicle shall be appropriately marked showing it to be an official police vehicle.

Even a first offense is classified as a high and aggravated misdemeanor in Georgia. However, there are certain circumstances that will elevate this offense automatically to a felony.

These circumstances include fleeing or attempting to elude and any of the following actions:

(i) Operates his or her vehicle in excess of 20 miles an hour above the posted speed limit;

(ii) Strikes or collides with another vehicle or a pedestrian;

(iii) Flees in traffic conditions which place the general public at risk of receiving serious injuries;

(iv) Commits a violation of paragraph (5) of subsection (a) of Code Section 40-6-391; or

(v) Leaves the state.

If an individual flees an officer while taking any of the above actions, then he or she is facing a penalty of up to five years in prison and fines up to $5,000.

Practice Note

As a Georgia DUI Attorney, I handle cases that involve DUI in Georgia as well as other serious traffic violations such as fleeing or attempting to elude.

Most of the time, a DUI case involves other kinds of charges. This means that Georgia DUI Penalties are escalated, and people may be facing serious consequences such as long term license suspension and jail time. If you or a loved one is facing a DUI charge or another type of serious traffic charge, contact our offices today.