It is awful when a criminal tries to evade police by fleeing in a vehicle, then causes a wreck that injuries innocent people.
But shouldn’t the responsibility for such actions rest with the criminal?
That is almost certainly what most people sensibly believe. But the Tennessee Court of Appeals has bizarrely ruled that an innocent person whose car is stolen and involved in a crash can be held responsible if he left his keys in the car.
Obviously we do not encourage motorists to leave their keys in their cars, even briefly. It increases the risk that the car may be stolen.
Still, the court went too far in allowing a lawsuit to proceed against a man who left his keys in a car that was stolen and was involved in an accident while the car thief was being pursued by police in Murfreesboro. The stolen car crashed into a vehicle carrying three people.
Court records did not say how severely the three people in the car that was struck were injured. We sympathize with them.
But the person who stole the car and drove it recklessly should be held to account for harm to the innocent motorists. The person who innocently — if unwisely — left his keys in the car should not be responsible for the actions of a car thief.