Dashcam footage shows a black Suzuki Hayabusa colliding with a Georgia State Patrol cruiser positioned across an Atlanta intersection. The rider flips over the handlebars and lands on the cruiser’s hood, ending a pursuit that began on the highway and continued through city streets.
A report republished by Yahoo News says a trooper near the I-75/85 split saw the motorcycle weaving through traffic without signaling and activated lights and siren. Rather than stop, the rider continued, at one point traveling on I-20 in the opposite direction before moving onto city streets.
The pursuit ended at an intersection where a second trooper’s cruiser was positioned across the roadway. The motorcycle hit the cruiser’s push bar, and the rider went over the handlebars onto the hood, according to the outlet. Backfire News reported that it found no public records confirming charges or the rider’s condition after the crash.
What the Footage and Public Record Establish
The clip was posted to Facebook by an account called OTSOTRNews. Its caption dates the pursuit to Aug. 22, 2022, and places it on I-20 westbound near the Downtown Connector in Fulton County. The caption says the rider was taken into custody but does not say whether he was injured.
The Yahoo News report says the date comes from the Facebook caption, not an official record. The outlet reported that it could not locate a Georgia State Patrol incident report, arrest warrant or court docket identifying the rider, so the charges and case outcome remain unconfirmed. Backfire News also reported finding no public indication of a court date.
What Georgia Law Says About Fleeing Police
Under O.C.G.A. § 40-6-395, a person commits an offense by willfully failing to stop or attempting to flee after an officer in uniform, displaying a visible badge and driving a marked official vehicle, signals the person to stop. A first conviction is a high and aggravated misdemeanor, punishable by a $1,000 to $5,000 fine and 30 days to 12 months in jail.
The Yahoo News report says the offense can become a felony in circumstances including driving more than 20 mph over the limit, striking another vehicle or pedestrian, causing a crash, fleeing in a way that risks serious injury in traffic, committing a listed traffic violation or leaving the state. The report notes that striking a vehicle has no separate speed threshold. A felony conviction carries a $5,000 to $10,000 fine and one to 10 years in prison, with restrictions on reducing or suspending the sentence. A separate statute requires license suspension for a conviction involving the use of a vehicle to flee an officer; the state licensing department sets its length. An amendment to the penalty subsection took effect July 1, 2022, and applies to offenses on or after that date.
Pursuit Tactics Under Georgia DPS Policy
Georgia Department of Public Safety Policy #17.02, revised in 2019, covers pursuit termination and tactics including roadblocks and tire-deflation devices. As described in the Yahoo News report, it bars tire-deflation devices on vehicles with fewer than four wheels and PIT maneuvers on motorcycles. It reserves stationary roadblocks for extraordinary circumstances, requires approval by an officer and bars setting one on a hillcrest or curve. The policy also requires trained units that can communicate for vehicle boxing, and directs troopers to end a pursuit when continuing poses greater risk than allowing a suspect to escape.
Current Roadblock Rules and Civil Liability
For current policy context, the Georgia Department of Public Safety’s roadblocks policy, revised October 6, 2025, requires supervisory personnel to decide in advance whether to implement a roadblock and to complete Form DPS-206. That later policy does not establish whether the 2022 intersection block was approved or governed by it; it adds an advance-approval requirement to the roadblock rules discussed in coverage of the 2019 pursuit policy. Criminal charges against a fleeing driver are distinct from civil liability over how a pursuit is conducted. In a separate case involving another pursuit and injury, the Supreme Court of Georgia said in Mixon v. City of Warner Robins that an officer may face civil liability if a pursuit is conducted without due regard for others’ safety and an injury results. The decision does not determine what happened in the Atlanta motorcycle incident.
Not an Isolated Case in Georgia
This is not the first high-speed motorcycle pursuit to capture attention in Georgia. In a separate incident on Aug. 3, 2026, a motorcyclist failed to stop and led authorities on a pursuit that continued from DeKalb County into Rockdale County, according to CBS Atlanta. That motorcycle struck a patrol car and crashed into a railing, and troopers said the rider was airlifted to a hospital in stable condition.
Georgia pursuits have also turned deadly. The station separately reported that a driver fleeing Georgia State Patrol lost control and crashed into 51-year-old Santana Patterson at a Southeast Atlanta gas station during Memorial Day weekend, killing her. That case renewed public debate over pursuit policies, with advocates calling for greater accountability and changes to pursuit tactics, arguing that technology could reduce the need for dangerous high-speed chases. Backfire News has also covered other Georgia State Patrol motorcycle pursuits involving a Hayabusa, including one chase in May 2024 and another in September 2024 that ended in a collision with a patrol car.
