Yesterday's early-morning chase in Petersburg took two young lives and nearly took a third. Over what? A fender-bender at a 7-Eleven.

As this space has noted before -- see the June 14 editorial, "Speed Kills" -- high-speed police pursuits rarely are justified. In most instances, the fleeing suspect is not a fugitive wanted on major felony charges but someone trying to get out of a traffic ticket.

Fleeing from the police is still wrong. Those who do so bear the weight of responsibility for the consequences. But police officers too often contribute to tragedy by acting like cowboys and gunning their engines in pursuit of petty violators. In nearly a third of fatal crashes resulting from high-speed pursuit, the persons killed are innocent bystanders. Sometimes they're even the police officers themselves.

If the young men who died disregarded a lawful order from an officer then they may have been committing a crime. But it certainly wasn't -- or at least shouldn't have been -- a capital offense.