Slow Down, Move Over Video-It's the LAW!

[flyerdan]

I would disagree with the ego statement in regard to the reason for the bright lighting; policy calls for the use of warning lights and they have to run what they have. The problem is that the lighting was designed to be visible in daylight conditions, it really should have a night mode that cuts it to, say 60%. It's kind of how a bright amber turn signal is extremely annoying when you're sitting behind it in a turn lane at night, not so much during the day.
You're limited on how many and how much candlepower you can use up front, the emergency vehicle industry should look at why that is and realize that blinding hazards don't always come from the front.

 

[PILOON]

Last time I moved over it cost me $150. + demerit points.
I was stopped for a red light and an ambulance beeped, hooted and hollered for me to let him pass . To do so I had to go thru a red light which after carefully checking I did so.
LEO was parked close by and he ticketed me for running a red.

SO, beep, toot, do whatever but I never move now.

Ever go to court to contest? Judge did you go thru a red? yes but it was an emergency! Judge but you admit you did go thru, guilty!
LEO's and emt vehicles do it every day but are in effect illegal but tolerated. We are not.

 

[RjCorazza]

Officials SHOULD realize how such accidents happen. It you are focused on something, like a cruiser with a ridiculous amount of high power LED strobes on it, that is what you will hit, unless you focus elsewhere. Taken from a book "Driving At The Limits Of Adhesion". They would be best to darken the cruiser, but that wouldn't satisfy the Ego in most cops.

Very true. Motorcycling 101 : identify the hazard, then look where you want to go.
Maryland's move over law is specific to emergency vehicles only, although I have always tried to move over or at least slow down for any vehicles stopped on the shoulder. A guy I went to school with was hit on an interstate while operating a tow truck shortly after high school. He was in a wheel chair and non-communicating for the rest of his life.

 

[dickfoster]

Last time I moved over it cost me $150. + demerit points.
I was stopped for a red light and an ambulance beeped, hooted and hollered for me to let him pass . To do so I had to go thru a red light which after carefully checking I did so.
LEO was parked close by and he ticketed me for running a red.

SO, beep, toot, do whatever but I never move now.

Ever go to court to contest? Judge did you go thru a red? yes but it was an emergency! Judge but you admit you did go thru, guilty!
LEO's and emt vehicles do it every day but are in effect illegal but tolerated. We are not.

I think I could have made the case. It's probably even written in the law somewhere. But then again you're in Canuckistan so things might be different there.

 

[Looking4new]

I am also in Canuckistan and I think I would have argued the charge, too.

 

[BigCountry1689]

Officials SHOULD realize how such accidents happen. It you are focused on something, like a cruiser with a ridiculous amount of high power LED strobes on it, that is what you will hit, unless you focus elsewhere. Taken from a book "Driving At The Limits Of Adhesion". They would be best to darken the cruiser, but that wouldn't satisfy the Ego in most cops.

Well.... when you see me trying to pull someone over with a single blue light on the roof of the car and holding my head out the window yelling woo...wooo...wooooo! You will know I'm trying not to bolster my ego......Cause people are gonna pull over for that :duh:

Apparently you've never tried to pull someone over who is eating, texting and talking while driving at 95mph. Yeah its us distracting people....... And for the record I know with my agency our cars come pre lit with what is deemed necessary, and we are not allowed to modify our vehicles. But as with most your perception appears to be that we are ego maniacs looking to shoot someone, at least until we are needed then all the sudden we have a new friend.

My friend is a state trooper he was conducting a traffic stop on a 4 lane road with a 15 foot grass median in the middle. Along comes Ms. rubbernecker down the opposite lane of travel and right through the median and into the light pole. He runs over to check on her and ask what happened, to her reply " I was trying to see what was wrong and I don't know what happened." She drove right towards the lights that were on the opposite side of the road and crashed. Why? because she was distracted from what she should of been paying attention to because she wanted to see what he was doing. If people would watch the road, leave adequate distance, check your mirrors and drive at safe speeds that facilitate appropriate reaction times we would see less accidents. Instead we want to get the Guinness Book of World Records for how many things we can do at one time while driving.

 

[BigCountry1689]

Last time I moved over it cost me $150. + demerit points.
I was stopped for a red light and an ambulance beeped, hooted and hollered for me to let him pass . To do so I had to go thru a red light which after carefully checking I did so.
LEO was parked close by and he ticketed me for running a red.

SO, beep, toot, do whatever but I never move now.

Ever go to court to contest? Judge did you go thru a red? yes but it was an emergency! Judge but you admit you did go thru, guilty!
LEO's and emt vehicles do it every day but are in effect illegal but tolerated. We are not.

In Florida traffic light laws are suspended for emergency vehicles in a emergency mode. As long as we can "SAFELY" cross medians, intersections or whatever is required to get to where we need to be.

I would have taken the ticket to court here, I cant see a Judge accepting that ticket. I cant really see a Deputy, Cop, or Trooper writing a ticket for that after seeing the ambulance but I work with some over zealous people so could be.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have seen cops hassling some punk in a McDonalds Parking Lot for an hour with every one of those stupid lights going. It's just for show! No different then the kid with the loud stereo or fart can exhaust.

 

[BigCountry1689]

I have seen cops hassling some punk in a McDonalds Parking Lot for an hour with every one of those stupid lights going. It's just for show! No different then the kid with the loud stereo or fart can exhaust.

That'll be your little secret...

I've never known anyone to sit in a McDonalds and watch the police for an hour, might be an obsession.

 

[Looking4new]

My friend is a state trooper he was conducting a traffic stop on a 4 lane road with a 15 foot grass median in the middle. Along comes Ms. rubbernecker down the opposite lane of travel and right through the median and into the light pole. He runs over to check on her and ask what happened, to her reply " I was trying to see what was wrong and I don't know what happened." She drove right towards the lights that were on the opposite side of the road and crashed. Why? because she was distracted from what she should of been paying attention to because she wanted to see what he was doing. If people would watch the road, leave adequate distance, check your mirrors and drive at safe speeds that facilitate appropriate reaction times we would see less accidents. Instead we want to get the Guinness Book of World Records for how many things we can do at one time while driving.

If she would have minded her own business, that wouldn't have happened. I hate nosy people with a passion.

 

[coobie]

And here is the aftermath when you don,t.My fellow co-worker was KILLED 5 years ago..

 

[FredH]

For years , Most Semi's have done this automatically . What is Sad though , Is the ignorants , who then pull up behind / catch the Semi , changed over to the right lane and pass on the right . See it all the time , weekly , down in California . Do I blame that person for doing that , Nope . Blame Law enforcement and Politicaians for not enforcing their laws to begin with . The crap that is " Allowed " there is insane . Funny thing is living in Southern Oregon , We get a lot of Californians up here to shop , thus no sales tax . The looks on their faces when You pass them as they are sitting there getting wrote up for what ever their offense is , is pretty priceless .

Fred H.

 

[Whatswrong]

People seem to pull over out of courtesy quite a lot; SLOW TO 60Km. is enforced in construction zones ,for service vehicles (tow trucks ,ambulance ,road maintenance ,police etc.) .
Our province only has a little over a million people yet we have had several tragic accidents in construction zones where people seem to think their day and life is so important that they can't pay attention and slow down .
A very sad case was a young lad on a rescue mission hit changing a tire for a stranded motorist on a divided highway ,that highway is not so busy that you can't move over ,this would be nothing more than the idea that "I'm important and I don't have to move over ".
On the topic of bright lights ,our snow plows got new lights last year and they are so bright that they are both blinding and distracting.

 

[mrmikey]

I have always moved over when safe no matter what is on the side of the road, car, truck, parked car etc. I started doing it when I first started riding a bike 10 years ago as people will pull out in front of you either because thy don't give a crap or don't see you. Now I do it out of courtesy if there is someone working on the side of the road or even if there's no one visible because someone may throw the door open on you.
It's law in NS to slow to 60KPH and move over if safe for police vehicles on the side of the road. I willingly move over, slow down to 60 and put my four ways on but you get the a$$holes that will rip by you on to get ahead. I just hope these cops are better RCMP offocers than they are rappers LOL Cop Light Bling : Chanson rap sur le corridor de securite - YouTube ..........Mike

 

[Barnbuilder]

We had 3 fire trucks get hit last night. It amazes me how stupid people are. Its below 32 and misting. Um maybe the bridges are freezing.
We almost got hit this morning she stopped a foot and a half from the truck.

 

[turbo36]

And here is the aftermath when you don,t.My fellow co-worker was KILLED 5 years ago..

Sorry for your loss, you CMS guys are hard workers.

 

[2ndhalf]

^^^^ Ditto.. very sorry to hear that!

One of the problems I see is that people don't look ahead enough. I travel I71 every day 90 miles total a day. I have for over 20 years. I have learned to look at least 1/8th mile ahead for lights or anything unusual; when visibility allows. Even before there was the law I would get over when I saw a disabled anything.

If visibility is poor or lower I slow down. Driving home from TN on Saturday I was amazed at how many people would not back off the gas. I was passed by many people doing over 90 on wet roads. I think a couple had to be approaching 100 mph. I kept telling my wife, I just want to get off this interstate before these crazies cause an accident. The North bound freeways were fine all the way to Ohio. The South bound lanes were not so lucky. We saw multiple accidents and miles and miles of stopped traffic on the South bound lanes. I have no doubt due to people not slowing down or paying attention.

I'm telling you TN drivers are the most unsafe drivers I think I have ever experienced. They were lane changing unneccessarily and just driving very aggressively and unsafely. It got a little better in KY and the further North I went it seemed the driving got better. Sorry if that sounds like I'm bashing the south but I spend a lot of time on the road and observing people's driving behavior and that is just what I experienced.

I think what makes it bad is that you have some southern drivers that drive really slow and other drivers driving really radical. The two do not mix well. In the north we all drive the same; maybe a little fast for some but not as radical and aggressive; just fast. Michigan is even faster : )

Any Truck Drivers on here have any insight?

 

[BigCountry1689]

^^^^ Ditto.. very sorry to hear that!

One of the problems I see is that people don't look ahead enough. I travel I71 every day 90 miles total a day. I have for over 20 years. I have learned to look at least 1/8th mile ahead for lights or anything unusual; when visibility allows. Even before there was the law I would get over when I saw a disabled anything.

If visibility is poor or lower I slow down. Driving home from TN on Saturday I was amazed at how many people would not back off the gas. I was passed by many people doing over 90 on wet roads. I think a couple had to be approaching 100 mph. I kept telling my wife, I just want to get off this interstate before these crazies cause an accident. The North bound freeways were fine all the way to Ohio. The South bound lanes were not so lucky. We saw multiple accidents and miles and miles of stopped traffic on the South bound lanes. I have no doubt due to people not slowing down or paying attention.

I'm telling you TN drivers are the most unsafe drivers I think I have ever experienced. They were lane changing unneccessarily and just driving very aggressively and unsafely. It got a little better in KY and the further North I went it seemed the driving got better. Sorry if that sounds like I'm bashing the south but I spend a lot of time on the road and observing people's driving behavior and that is just what I experienced.

I think what makes it bad is that you have some southern drivers that drive really slow and other drivers driving really radical. The two do not mix well. In the north we all drive the same; maybe a little fast for some but not as radical and aggressive; just fast. Michigan is even faster : )

Any Truck Drivers on here have any insight?

You would hate South Florida, people might as well start buying bumper cars. When they see I-95 they think it is a speed limit not the road. In Sept. it took 5 of us (3 Deputies/ 2 Troopers) to pull an 82 Y.O. over driving in the south bound emergency lane going north. Just left breakfast and was drunk (10AM), she thought she was going the right way. Needless to say she no longer had a D.L until she could re-test. And we see this type of crazy every day.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

I would like to add: if it is save to do so

I see people do the craziest moves to move over (endangering themselves and others), or to get out of the way of emergency vehicles, or just stop on the road.

I like the European way. Make way, give room, but keep moving. Stopped traffic blocking the road is not of help for emergency responders.

Yep. This is like pedestrians having the right of way. It's so obviously the right and sensible thing to do, it's so obviously much safer, that nobody thinks it through, and it's defended like a religion.


We've only had it here in Virginia for a year or two and I've already seen it cause accidents and create completely unnecessary traffic jams.

It's a "feel good but make things worse" bad law.

 

[coobie]

Sorry for your loss, you CMS guys are hard workers.

Thank you.One of the main reasons I retired before I was 60 years old.The gentlemen who got killed was my journeyman line worker we were a crew for 10 years.Worked day & night Safely in about every weather condition and some then some idiot rear ended the truck while he was behind it.His safety vest was on and beacons flashing in daylight conditions.It was my off day & could have been me just as easy.To this day it still bothers me on a daily basis..