Dash cams tell the truth, cops lie

The distance wasn’t Marcos fault initially and was the pickup trucks fault. The pickup also very likely slowed down when he saw the trooper and at that point Marco is responsible for hitting his brakes to widen the gap, like he probably did. Had he told the cop the pickup passed him and pulled over the traffic stop may have have ended there. The cop was nice and professional the entire time and didn’t give Marco a ticket. Marco was confrontational from the start (in my opinion) and probably is lucky he didn’t get a ticket and have to fight it in court. If you treat the police with respect you generally get treated with respect. Marco was 100% wrong that 2 seconds is a safe distance to follow a vehicle at 70 MPH and he won’t be able to show anywhere that the FMCSA says this is ok like he stated. I am still not blaming Marco for the initial following distance, but don’t debate a cop on the side of the road especially when he is correct about what is a safe following distance.
Years ago before dash cams I had a semi pass me and almost immediately come back in to my lane. Then almost immediately we pass an Indiana State Trooper in the median. I got pulled over for following too close. I was respectful to the Trooper and explained what happened. He said have a nice day and walked back to his car. If I acted like a dick, he probably would have given me a ticket.

 

Yes, the LEO was nice from the start - even told him "Nice truck, is this yours?" - to which Marcos didn't reply.

Marcos starts in arguing with the trooper. Dumb opening move. Cab is disorganized and the sunshade is half down which the trooper is trying to wrangle with while holding paperwork and balancing on the step. Clean your cab up a bit, offer to remove the sunshade or roll it up, and start explaining that the pickup moved over in front of you and you were trying to safely re-establish a safer following distance when the trooper lit you up.

Doesn't know what he's hauling and has been driving 30 years?

That's your first and last chance to give a good impression and plead your case right there - before the trooper goes back to the cruiser. That's when you politely explain what happened - and - ask the trooper - "If you're going to issue me a warning, can you please just write the ticket, because for a CDL holder the warning is worse than the ticket"

Then you can happily trot off to the attorney with your dash cam and fight it in court. In which case, the dash cam shows that Marcos had 15-20 seconds to adjust his speed and re-establish a safer following distance.

The right attitude can go a long way.

 

Driver had an attitude right outta the gate. Officer was nice. Typical know it all driver, and then doesn't even know what he is loaded with. Sloppy cab too.

 

Yeah. Still say more pickups fault. You can’t hit brakes everytime someone passes and cuts infront of you.
I’m glad Arkansas(state I live) enacted what years ago they spent millions o. Saying split speeds are dangerous, now we have them again.. 75/70.. cars are running 80 plus. Pass you slow down, it’s a constant.

 

You are under no obligation to respect the police especially when you've done nothing wrong. They need more pushback against their blue line gang.

 

I can't argue that. Ideally the trooper would have seen what the pickup did, and went to give the pickup a lecture instead.

Dunno. We don't get to see where the trooper came from or what he saw.

 

What's up for debate is if he was following within 200 feet of the truck once it passed him. That's the law in Arkansas when pulling a trailer, most states have a following distance specifically for vehicles pulling trailers.

If he has laser that measured the pickup truck's distance then he has legitimate probable cause to stop the truck, especially if he didnt increase the following distance. It would be quite petty but we'll within his scope. This law is violated all day every day but here we see it actually enforced.

Watching the video the police officer doesn't know the law either, citing 7 vehicle lengths at 70 mph. The driver is also incorrect in that 70 mph a vehicle covers 196 feet in two seconds, which violates Arkansas 200 feet law. Other states have further following distance than that.

 

I absolutely agree with you on the pickup being at fault initially, but I absolutely try my best to widen the gap whether I like it or not occasionally when some idiot slows down unexpectedly. We all see it where someone sees a cop and hits the brakes even when they are running the speed limit. I will still cuss them but 37 years of safe driving are on the line for me and it is personal for me to not ever be at fault if I can possibly prevent rear ending someone. Others can do as they choose but I expect a four wheeler to do exactly like that pickup did when they see a cop.

 

While a respectful conversation is seldom seen today, manners are never out of date. I have better things to do than drive to Arkansas on my time to show a Judge my dash cam video.