Just some of the stupid things I see

Well I can tell you from experience, I try not to stop anyone in a downpour. Before you all start jumping up and down it's for a number of reasons. First, the spray from vehicle traffic drowns out my emergency lights which makes it hard for traffic to see me on the side of the road. Second, the roadway is slick and people do dumb things when I hit my lights, such as jerking the wheel which can cause them to lose control of the vehicle. Third, I get very wet, which makes me not very happy. I have stopped them in the rain, downpours. Even with a few inches of snow on the road. I don't make a practice of it. But if someone does something so stupid it warrants me to take action I will. But I weigh the violation and if it's something minor I'll let it go and get em again another day. If it is something so flagrant, dangerous, they will get stopped and cited.

 

I understand that, but if I can prevent me from getting hurt or killed, I am doing that. Me stopping a car in the rain for no headlights..............well let me weigh all the issues. Light rain/mist, no problem. Heavy downpour, reduced visability? Not trying just for a headlight violation. I not getting someone hurt/killed increase my risk of the same for a measley light violation. Just like I won't stop a truck in the same scenario for a light violation. My number one goal each day when I leave the house is to come home that day. When I was brand new and full of pee and vinegar, I didn't think to much about that. A few years later I was involved in a traffic stop shooting, completely changed my outlook. After losing a few friends to line of duty deaths has definately changed my outlook. Two kids waiting on me to walk through the door will change anyones outlook. I stop a lot of cars and big trucks. Write a lot of tickets and lock a lot of folks up. After 14 years, I work the same as I did when I was a rookie. But I try to prioritize my enforcement actions. I have to think three to four steps ahead of what is happening. For instance, a good amount of moisture is or has fallen. The roads are slick. I see a violation I normally stop. The shoulder of the interstate has puddled water which could cause a hydroplane situation. I ask myself, if I stop this vehicle and for some unknown reason it runs off the road and wrecks what am I going to do then? Is my Agency going to want to know what i was thinking. Yes, but I saw a violation and was going to cite it. Ok, covered. But the guy that flips his car then sues me and my department for me trying to stop him when I should have known it was unsafe to attempt to stop a vehicle. Big problem? Not really. Not the first time I have been sued. A headache? Yes. A hassle to go through? Yeah, more BS than I care for. I am responsible when I try to stop someone, for picking the location. Sometimes drivers drive past the location I want and put me a in a bad spot. Some stop right in the middle of the road. Talk about a bad feeling. Stopped in the hammer lane on the interstate with traffic bearing down on you.

Like I said in an earlier post, I weigh the violation. I gauge how flagrant it is, how unsafe it is to the rest of the motoring public and act from there. But to just stop every light violation I see in a downpour is not something I do for a number of safety reasons.

 

Had one today that made me shake my head. Had big truck, local guy, running at 78K cross a restricted bridge set for 30K. A back country road and an old antique bridge. I had been a wreck on a State route and was cutting the back road back to the interstate when I meet this fella as he was crossing the bridge. All he had to do was drive less than a mile on the road he turned off from and take the road he was going to. Driver tells me that "I was just going this way, it's shorter." I said, "What 30 seconds shorter?"