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Linsay Lunsford looked like she had a great future. Passionate about community service, the 18-year-old had moved to Greensboro in 2007 to attend UNCG to become an elementary school teacher. But a trip to Creedmoor on Dec. 1 to see family proved fatal. She was killed in a crash with a man fleeing from Franklinton police. The man, Guy Christopher Ayscue, high on cocaine, also was killed. So was Lunsford's nine-year-old sister, Maggie.

It's impossible to know if the sisters' deaths could have been avoided. Ayscue was being pursued because he had been driving on the wrong side of the road. Still, as Jim Phillipps, the late founder of Pursuitwatch.org, said, "A drunk at 40 mph is much less dangerous than a drunk at 80 mph."

Pursuitwatch is just one of several Web sites dedicated to improving the safety of high-speed police chases. Such sites often are started, as Pursuitwatch was, by people left bereft after having an innocent family member killed as a result of a high-speed police chase. As reporter Ryan Seals' Sunday story in the News & Record pointed out, such deaths take place on a daily basis across America, with thousands injured annually because of them.

And those maimed or killed include police officers. Seals' story also focused on Guilford County Deputy Vic Maynard, whose participation in a police pursuit left him seriously injured and ended his National Guard career.

Concerned about the carnage, many have sought to make police chases less likely. Some advocate pursuing only violent offenders. Indeed, most pursuits start after traffic violations.

In Guilford County, the sheriff's department and the Greensboro Police Department have some sound policies in place: They limit the vehicles in a chase to two or three — a good idea since research shows that the more vehicles involved, the more likely there is to be a crash. They also favor marked cars over unmarked ones and provide supervision for pursuits.

Still, the high percentage of city police pursuits that ended in a crash in 2007 — some 44 percent — is cause for concern, as it is above the national average of about 33 percent. Also, the state as a whole appears to have an above-average number of fatalities related to police pursuit.

One who might argue that local law enforcement should revisit their chase policies is Guilford District Attorney Doug Henderson. "I think there probably are more chases than there should be," he said, adding that the issue of chases "merits more training than we have in place."

Keeping safety paramount in police chases — whether by increasing in-service training or by reassessing pursuit policy — must be done so that fewer innocent bystanders are killed.

To comment on this editorial, visit the blog Your Voice at the Table.