The first tragic event I remember with tire deflation devices (TDD) was on September 11, 2005. Arkansas State Trooper Mark Carthron successfully deployed the devices during a vehicle pursuit, but when he went to retrieve them from the roadway he was struck by another trooper in the pursuit. While it was the first event that I knew about, there had been ten deaths previous to Trooper Carthron, dating back to 1996.
These tragedies and others were on my mind when I was able to find funding to deploy these units at my own agency. I remember telling an instructor that I had tasked with the implementation of the program, “We must train, train and train some more.”
He did a fine job training hundreds of officers, and I knew they had been given all the tools and training to succeed, but a little voice in my head had me concerned.
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