Arkansas Trooper resigns after conducting PIT maneuver on wrong car

Arkansas State Police officials say a trooper has retired after he crashed his vehicle into the wrong car during a pursuit.

The incident happened on Sunday on Interstate 40. At around 8:30 p.m., the trooper performed a tactile vehicle intervention (TVI), also called a PIT (precision immobilization technique) maneuver, “in error” during a pursuit near mile marker 265.

Authorities said the trooper had been in pursuit of two vehicles traveling faster than 100 mph. One of the vehicles being chased was a white, four-door sedan. Unfortunately, the trooper in pursuit misidentified a bystander’s vehicle as the suspect’s car and executed the PIT maneuver, crashing into the wrong car and bringing it to a halt.

Dashcam footage of the pursuit shows the trooper’s car traveling at high speed on I-40 in pursuit of the suspects. The trooper passes several cars before his vehicle approaches the white sedan, which flashes its brake lights as the trooper draws near.

But as the white car slows down, the trooper rams his vehicle into the rear left side of the car, sending it flying into the shoulder of the highway.

Both the driver and a passenger in the stopped vehicle were uninjured and declined medical treatment, authorities said.

A PIT maneuver is a pursuit tactic used by law enforcement to stop suspects in a fleeing vehicle. The maneuver involves the pursuing police officer to use his vehicle to bump the suspect’s vehicle on the side near a rear wheel, which causes the vehicle in front to spin out of control and stop.

State police officials said the trooper’s supervisor immediately began an internal review of the incident, which is ongoing. The trooper involved in the crash, Cpl. Thomas Hubbard, has submitted his letter of retirement and has not been on duty since the incident.

In 2021, an Arkansas woman sued a state trooper who “negligently performed” a PIT maneuver that resulted in her car flipping over on the highway at 60 mph in July 2020.

PIT maneuvers were increasingly being used by the Arkansas State Police at the time. Between January 2017 and December 2020, PIT maneuvers were used 306 times, with half of those happening in 2020, according to a local news outlet.

At least 30 people have died and hundreds more have been injured since 2016 from PIT maneuvers, according to the Washington Post. Eighteen of those deaths occurred after police attempted to stop a person for speeding or another minor traffic violation.