CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas Department of Public Safety Sargeant Nathan Brandley said when they begin a police pursuit, a trooper must ask themselves a series of questions in a matter of seconds.
"Are they endangering other drivers? Are they going into the opposite lane? Are they blowing through stop signs? Stop lights?"
Sargeant Brandley said ultimately they have to weigh the risk of their safety, and the public's safety to ensure a pursuit.
"We wanna protect the innocent bystanders as well as from somebody especially if we know there was another crime committed, you know, in he act of why they're fleeing," he said.
Officials reported the car was going nearly 90 miles per hour down FM 624 when it turned onto a side street, and ultimately rolled over.
Sargeant Brandley said as law enforcement officers, they are trained to decide if a pursuit is worth it.
"It comes down to, other peoples' safety, who's around in that area, time of day, time of night. If we have to back off and it's not worth the risk and we can get them at a later date, then we'll do that," he explained.
However, Brandley said what a driver decides is out of their control.
"You're only being very selfish when all you're thinking about yourself and not other peoples' safety in the car," he said.
Some people said pursuits are more harmful than beneficial.
"I don't think it's a very good choice, people outside of the original crime get injured, and now we have more sophisticated techniques of following and pursuing and sooner or later, catching up with this person," Rick Kole said.
Others said pursuits are a necessary measure to keep the public safe.
"They should do them, People could get hurt, they could kill others just like that, innocent bystanders can just die," Jerry, from Corpus Christi said.
Regardless, Sargeant Brandley said their policy is efficient.
"100 percent with the Texas Highway Patrol, I mean we wouldn't be trained the way we are to in order to make those split decisions to save other lives or our own lives," he said.