A reminder of her son's death comes to Billie Gentry when she least expects it. Sunday, it came after she learned another family's son never made it home from a Reds game.
Their sons, one from the west side, one from the east side, might never have been connected except for one thing: Both were killed in Cincinnati police pursuits.
Michael Tenhundfeld, 18, of Delhi Township, was driving home with his girlfriend and another friend Sunday when Officer Gregory Berting - in pursuit of a traffic violator - ran a stop sign and slammed into the silver Honda, crushing Mr. Tenhundfeld.
When she heard about the crash, Mrs. Gentry's mind flashed back to a year ago in May when her son, Darnell Gentry, 19, of Madisonville, met a similar fate - only he was the person being pursued.
Mrs. Gentry says police must make pursuits safer, and a nationwide support group for police-pursuit victims agrees with her.
STOPP - Solutions to Tragedies of Police Pursuits - is a group based in Jackson Hole, Wyo., that works to change police-pursuit policies across the country. So far, laws to limit police pursuits nationwide have failed.
STOPP advocates that chases be limited to violent offenders and pushes for stiffer penalties against people who flee, program director Jeffrey Maceiko said.
"There's a big risk of someone getting killed or injured in a chase," he said. "We don't think a stolen car is worth a life." Traffic violations led an officer to chase Darnell Gentry on May 21, 1996. Mr. Gentry sped into a steel utility pole on Central Parkway, just south of the Western Hills Viaduct. He was thrown 70 feet from his car and died.
"Both these boys, my son and the one that just got killed, they hadn't even begun to live," Mrs. Gentry said.
Sunday's crash prompted Cincinnati police to examine its pursuit policy and training. Until now, high-speed-chase training mostly has come out of a textbook, Lt. Col. Theodore Schoch, Cincinnati assistant chief, said this week.
Inadequate training is part of the problem, Mr. Maceiko said. STOPP estimates 2,500 people are killed and 55,000 injured nationwide each year during police pursuits.
In a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study that ranked states' police-pursuit fatalities from 1980 to 1995, Ohio came in eighth. Indiana ranks 14th, and Kentucky ranks 18th. California and Texas top the list in deaths.
Federal highway safety statistics indicate that a quarter of the people who are killed after high-speed chases are police officers or bystanders.
David Falcone, a criminal justice professor at Illinois State University, studies police chases and says one of every 100 high-speed chases ends in death. At least 60 percent of them begin with routine traffic stops, he said.
In Cincinnati, police reported 180 chases in 1996 and 105 so far this year at an average speed of 57 mph. Most pursuits began over traffic violations. Of them, 155 resulted in auto accidents.
A review of Cincinnati police records shows the majority of accidents were caused by the suspect. Most ran into utility poles, parked cars or police cruisers. One suspect broke both arms and legs in February 1996 after running into a Cadillac. Some suspects jumped out of their cars, leaving the cars to roll into whatever was nearby - yards, garages, even an officer's ankle.
The police division will review its policy and look at policies of other cities in deciding whether to change Cincinnati's policy of allowing officers to chase traffic violators, said Lt. Tim Schoch, spokesman for the police division.
Mrs. Gentry says she hopes it doesn't take another death to make the decision.
"It's just like they're so gung-ho to apprehend someone, even on a minor offense," she said. "They weren't there when we went to the morgue to identify my son's body."
TEACHERS SEE PROMISE SWEPT AWAY Krista Ramsey column
Previous stories
OFFICER REPRIMANDED FOR CHASE LAST SUMMER June 19, 1997
VICTIM'S FAMILY PRAYS FOR OFFICER June 19, 1997
OFFICER: CHASE WAS SLOW June 18, 1997
PROSECUTORS CONSIDER CHARGES June 18, 1997
PURSUED MAN RACKED UP OFFENSES June 18, 1997
TENHUNDFELD VISITATION TODAY June 18, 1997
COP IN CRASH RAN STOP SIGN June 17, 1997
COPS' PURSUIT RULES VARY June 17, 1997
DIAGRAM OF THE CHASE June 17, 1997
TYPICAL DAY, TRAGIC NIGHT June 17, 1997
HIGH-SPEED POICE CHASE FATAL June 16, 1997
