The intersection of Harbor Road and Second, where the pursuit paused for a full cycle of the lights.Photo: Wazel News traffic cam
The slowest pursuit in Palmetto Bay's history ended on Wednesday afternoon when a getaway driver, having stopped at every yellow light between the Coral Key jeweller and the marina, was asked by police to pull over and did so "promptly and safely," according to the arrest report.
The driver, 31, had been waiting outside the jeweller when two associates ran out with a bag, got in, and shouted "go." He went, witnesses say, at 28 miles an hour in a 30 zone, "because of the school."
Forty minutes, eleven lights
Dashcam footage released by police shows the sedan stopping at the first yellow on Harbor Road while its passengers "gestured a great deal." At the second yellow, one passenger attempted to get out, found the child lock on, and sat back down. At the third, the driver can be heard explaining that "a yellow means prepare to stop, not speed up, people get that wrong."
Officers in the pursuing cruiser said they considered a pit manoeuvre but "could not, in good conscience, ram a car that was stopped at a light."
"He used the indicator every single time. We have never seen that in a pursuit. We have barely seen it in traffic."
— Sgt. Ana Cole, Palmetto Bay traffic division
The driver's sedan, indicating. Officers described the turn as 'textbook.'
The passengers' position
The two passengers, now in custody, told detectives they had hired the driver through "a friend of a friend" who described him as "reliable." They did not dispute the description. One said he had asked the driver to "just run the light" and was told the light "was not his to run."
The driver has been charged with aiding a robbery and, after some discussion at the precinct, has not been charged with anything else. He has asked that his record note that he "came to a complete stop at the stop sign on Pier Street, which the cruiser did not."
A city reacts
Mayor's office staff declined to comment on the pursuit but pointed out that the city's "Yellow Means Slow" campaign, launched in March at a cost of $1.2 million, "appears to be working." The traffic division has asked that the driver, once released, consider a job in road safety. He is said to be considering it, carefully, at a safe distance.