Innocent Driver Injured In Crash During Police Chase Dies
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – An innocent driver caught in the middle of a high-speed police chase in Fayette County Friday has died.
Bendetta "Lynn" Miller died Saturday afternoon at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va.
She was 57 years old.
Miller was first taken to the hospital in critical condition after being hit by a state police car in pursuit of another driver.
Police say the driver led officers on a chase along Bute Road in North Union Township Friday afternoon after refusing to pull over during a traffic stop.
"I just want to know why this senseless act here, this high-speed chase on this road here ... innocent people got killed, my wife," said Miller's husband Gary.
The trooper suffered a hip injury and Miller, who was driving a red SUV, sustained head injuries when their vehicles crashed while police were chasing the suspect's car.
Police say the chase suspect started to pull over but kept going, heading for the exit to Bute Road. By then, the a second trooper joined the chase.
They say Miller pulled over to let the suspect and the trooper get by. But, apparently, she didn't see the second state police vehicle coming and turned left into his path.
Saturday 23-year-old Jonathan Michael Switch of McClellandtown was arrested.
Miller's husband said if he had just talked to his wife on the phone a little longer after she had left a nearby shopping plaza, she could still be alive today.
"If I could have delayed her, if I would have talked to her longer, she would have probably been with me today," said Gary Miller. "When I hung up, I said, 'I'll see you this evening when I get home. It never happened."
It's unclear if he will be charged in Miller's death.
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