- Arkansas trooper attempts PIT at ~133 mph during April 24 pursuit.
- The maneuver goes wrong, sending the patrol car into a barrier.
- Incident underscores ongoing debate around high-speed PIT tactics.
There’s a reason most police departments treat PIT maneuvers like a last resort, especially on crowded interstates. When they go right, they can end a pursuit quickly. When they don’t, the consequences don’t just land on the suspect or the trooper. They spill into traffic. A pursuit on April 24, 2026, is now making that point in the most violent way possible. While innocent motorists evaded injury, they did so by mere inches after a trooper pitted a suspect at 133 mph (214 km/h).
Dashcam footage making the rounds online shows Arkansas State Police Trooper Collier Wright completing the PIT maneuver at 9:31 PM. That timing is important because Collier isn’t alone with the suspect on the roadway. Within seconds, the maneuver unravels. Instead of simply disabling the suspect’s car, what appears to be a Ford Fusion, both cars crash.
More: Did Arkansas State Trooper’s 150 MPH Challenger Hellcat Pit Chase Put Public At Risk?
The suspect goes into the wall to the right and we lose sight of their car. Trooper Wright almost immediately loses control of his vehicle as well. There are three innocent drivers directly ahead of him, and he avoids them by the skin of his teeth after bashing into the right highway barrier before his car swerves across traffic at over 100 mph (160 km/h), hits the other barrier, and slides backwards, grinding on the concrete K-rail the entire time. It’s unclear if officers actually secured the suspect.
Regardless, the entire situation gets called into question with this type of damage and potential for loss of life. Many agencies across the U.S. restrict PIT maneuvers to lower speeds or prohibit them entirely on busy highways. The California Highway Patrol caps the maneuver at 35 mph (56 km/h), North Carolina Highway Patrol allows it up to 55 mph (89 km/h), with many agencies classifying anything above their threshold as use of deadly force.
The reasoning is straightforward: at triple-digit speeds, the physics are unforgiving. Vehicles don’t rotate predictably, tires don’t break traction the same way, and small miscalculations turn into high-energy crashes that can involve anyone nearby.
Even for ASP this is a bit of an outlier. Perhaps the fact that the suspect was about a mile from the state line made Wright a bit more eager to stop them before they were out of jurisdictional reach. We’ve contacted Trooper Wright in hopes of obtaining more information. We’ll update this piece if we hear back.
