Since the invention of the automobile, no aspect of American life, including crime and its control, has remained untouched by this far-reaching innovation in transportation. Vehicular "hot pursuit"-when suspects in motor vehicles use excessive speed in attempting to elude the police. Unfortunately, accounts of wild chases across crowded inner city streets, through tree-lined suburban boulevards, and over remote country roads are very real and not merely fictional material created for entertaining television and motion picture audiences. The specter of "hot pursuit," complete with screaming sirens and red or blue flashing lights, has become a recurring fact of modem life.1 So, too, are the mishaps involving police vehicles or the vehicles pursued by the police. Pursuit-related accidents causing personal injury, death or property damage very often lead to lawsuits claiming negligence on the part of police officers, their supervisors and their governmental employers. Some of these suits have resulted in six or seven figure awards and several have nearly bankrupted some municipalities and townships.