Inside Edition spotted Officer Christopher Ferguson going as fast as 105 mph in a 65-mph zone.
It was a violent crash between a speeding police squad car and an SUV caught on dramatic surveillance video.
The SUV driver, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the vehicle and landed in the middle of the street. The SUV driver and his wife who was a passenger are outraged because the officer was not responding to an emergency – he was heading home after work.
The officer behind the wheel of that May 2017 incident was Christopher Ferguson of the Algood, Tenn. police department.
According to a police report, Ferguson was driving 21 MPH over the speed limit at the time of the crash. The SUV driver, 70-year-old James Cryer, was severely disabled by the accident. The district attorney Bryant Dunaway did not press charges because he felt both drivers were at fault – Ferguson for speeding and Cryer for failing to yield.
“I thought we were going to die,” Cryer's wife, Rena, a passenger in the car, told Inside Edition.
This isn’t an isolated incident for Ferguson. While working for the neighboring Cookeville, Tenn. Police Department, he was reprimanded five times for causing what they called “preventable crashes." A review board recommended he be terminated or resign. He resigned but renewed his police career with the Algood Police Department. Two years later he crashed into the Cryers.
Sheryl Allen of the Tennessee NAACP is outraged that Ferguson didn’t lose his job and said that the crash with the Cryers never should have happened and could have been prevented.
“Why is he still able to drive a vehicle?” she said. “Why does he still have a job? Why does he still have his driver's license? Why?”
To determine if Ferguson has improved his driving habits, Inside Edition hired radar expert Donald Sawicki to rig our car with the same radar equipment police use. On the night we followed Ferguson home it was raining and dark, but we documented him regularly driving 20 MPH over the speed limit – and more.
Within minutes of leaving work, Sawicki clocked Ferguson driving 72 in a 45 MPH zone. When he turned down a city street, he was clocked doing 80 in a 30.
But as Ferguson turned onto the highway, he put the pedal to the metal, reaching an astounding 105 mph where the speed limit is 65.
“I'm afraid to be on the same road with this guy!" Sawicki said.
When Ferguson finally pulled into his driveway after the 90-minute commute, Guerrero tried to ask him why he was in such a hurry.
“Sir, we saw you driving 105 miles per hour,” she said. “You're a law enforcement officer. Why are you breaking traffic laws?”
But he rolled up his window and drove off without answering.
Allen of the NAACP said what we found is incredible but not surprising.
“It hurts a lot that someone who is supposed to serve and protect us is out here doing harm to people and walking away and nobody does anything about it,” she said.
District Attorney Dunaway said he would not speak to Inside Edition about the crash involving Ferguson and Algood Police Chief Dale Armour did not return multiple calls and emails.
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