Car Chases

On another rainy evening I sit down to watch the local news and they are covering the big story of the day. The war in Iraq? Elections in Britain? The Florida Marlins' last-ditch efforts to get tax subsidy for a new stadium? The bad weather? No, no, no, and no. This was the big story.

What is it about car chases that make TV stations have to break into scheduled programming to broadcast? OK, I know there's a public safety factor involved, but aside from that I can't think of any compelling reason why we should sit through who knows how many minutes of police cars chasing after some idiot who decides to put the life of innocent drivers at risk.

The only car chase I remember finding interesting enough to watch was the infamous O.J. Simpson "White Ford Bronco Chase" back in 1994. Ironically enough, that was probably the slowest car chase on record.

Thankfully we don't have as many car chases here as in Southern California, but one a year is more than enough.