When a young driver fled from the scene of a traffic stop, a Richmond County deputy sheriff gave chase. The pursuit quickly reached high speeds and ended only minutes later, when the fleeing driver collided with another car. Laura Felder was a passenger in that car, and she was killed in the collision. Her Estate and children brought this lawsuit against Ronnie Strength, the Sheriff of Richmond County, in his official capacity, alleging that the deputy, when he chose to continue the pursuit even after it reached high speeds, acted in reckless disregard of proper police procedures and thereby caused Felder’s death. The Sheriff moved for summary judgment, asserting both sovereign immunity and that the plaintiffs cannot prove that the choice of the deputy to continue the pursuit was a legal cause of Felder’s death. The trial court denied the motion for summary judgment, and the Sheriff appeals. We vacate the order denying the motion and remand the case for the court below to consider whether the Estate of Felder and her children have sufficient evidence to create a jury question on the issue of cause in fact, but we find no error in the court’s denial of summary judgment on sovereign immunity and proximate cause grounds. In an appeal from the denial of a motion for summary judgment, we undertake a de novo review of the record evidence, viewing it in the light most favorable to the nonmoving parties, the Estate of Felder and her children in this case. Hood v. Todd , 287 Ga. 164, 165 695 SE2d 31 2010. So viewed, the record shows that on the evening of Saturday, March 1, 2008, around 9 o’clock, a Richmond County deputy sheriff observed Jamie Ray Clark, a 19-year old resident of South Carolina, make a u-turn in a Chevrolet Blazer, in disregard of a traffic signal at an intersection in downtown Augusta. The deputy initiated a traffic stop, and Clark pulled his vehicle to the shoulder of the street and stopped. Clark gave his provisional driver’s license, which permitted him to drive only if accompanied by someone more than 21 years of age, to the deputy. Because the only passenger accompanying Clark was less than 21 years of age, another officer telephoned Clark’s aunt and asked her to come to Augusta and pick up Clark and his passenger. As they awaited the arrival of Clark’s aunt, the deputy began to write two traffic citations, one for disregard of a traffic control device, the other for driving in violation of license restrictions.
Before the deputy finished writing these citations, Clark suddenly restarted his vehicle and drove away from the scene of the traffic stop. The deputy activated his emergency equipment and gave chase.1 The pursuit covered more than four miles,2 and Clark and the pursuing deputy reached speeds of at least 90 miles per hour.3 In the course of the pursuit, the deputy observed Clark overtake other vehicles in a reckless manner and enter several intersections against traffic signals. As Clark entered the last of these intersections, his Blazer collided with a car in which Felder was a passenger. She was killed in the collision.
