State v. Pierce, 216 N.C. App. 377 (Oct. 18, 2011)

In a case in which a second officer got into a vehicular accident and died while responding to a first officer’s communication about the defendant’s flight from a lawful stop, the defendant’s flight from the first officer was the proximate cause of the second officer’s death. The evidence was sufficient to allow a reasonable jury to conclude that the second officer’s death would not have occurred had the defendant not fled and that the second officer’s death was reasonably foreseeable. The court rejected the defendant’s argument that the second officer’s contributory negligence broke the causal chain.