Facts, Please
Investigating the previous Beltway pileup

Saturday, June 16, 2007

ANOTHER terrible crash on the Capital Beltway: Four young women were killed and a fifth was injured Thursday night; three of the victims had graduated from West Potomac High School only hours before. Our hearts go out to the families.

Meanwhile, nearly three weeks have passed since a seven-vehicle pileup on the Beltway claimed two lives, and we know little more about what happened now than we did the night of May 30.

At the time, police told reporters that an officer was chasing a motorcyclist and, in the process, rammed another vehicle, which sailed over a median rail and onto the Beltway's inner loop. Five other cars traveling in the inner loop then crashed. The driver and passenger in the car that jumped the median both died, and 15 people were injured. The officer who allegedly gave chase is on administrative leave. There is a video record of the matter, caught by a camera in the police cruiser, but the motorcyclist is still at large.

The next day, the Prince George's County police department would not confirm for a Post reporter that the cruiser was even chasing the motorcycle, and a June 1 news release stated only that the cruiser was "following a speeding motorcycle." Police officials have said little more since. Investigators closed off parts of the Beltway last Sunday to reconstruct the accident, and a standard administrative investigation of the officer's conduct is underway.

The accident brings up a host of questions, not least the issue of when police should give chase, an inherently dangerous activity that can, under certain circumstances, do far more harm than good. It is unclear whether the officer in this case had good reason to pursue the motorcyclist (if, indeed, he was pursuing). The Prince George's police will not say what, if anything, the officer has told them about the accident. Nor will they release the video or say what, if anything, it reveals. And they refuse to give any indication of when any of this information might become public.

We understand that police are in the middle of what may be a long investigation. But by now they ought to have established some basic facts about the case: Did the officer radio in to report a chase? Did he give a reason for pursuing the motorcycle? If so, did it conform with department policy? These basic questions should be answered publicly.