Failure to yield to an emergency vehicle

Sorry, the truck driver owns this one. He had opportunity out of both mirrors to see what was happening, and even tries to argue his way out of it. He wasn’t paying attention to his mirrors, as he should have been. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he may not have been able to hear the siren.

The trooper moves first to the left, then to the right in an attempt to make sure the driver sees him, but the driver misses both opportunities for far too long.

I think that what’s happening here is an assumption is being made: that what we’re seeing from the camera’s perspective is what the trooper is seeing. The camera is in a fixed position, low and center on the windshield. The trooper is able to move his head as needed to see around the vehicles in front of him, from the left side of the glass.

All the talk of the “laws of physics” only goes so far. You have to add in all the factors, physics doesn’t stand alone here. Logic, experience and extensive training all apply to the equation.

 

Pulled from a manual regarding law enforcement driver training:

Legal Aspects of Law Enforcement Driving Objective 1.2
All states give officers a limited exemption from certain traffic laws for emergency driving. This exemption recognizes the social importance of rapid response and apprehension of fleeing criminals. Any driving at high-speeds and contrary to normal rules of the road carries a risk of injury to others. That risk of injury is weighed against the need for quick response and arrest of violators. Emergency exemption statutes reflect this balancing of competing social needs: safety on public roadways balanced against protecting against criminals.
Emergency Exemption Statutes
Pursuit of a violator and going to the scene of an emergency are the two categories of emergency driving most common to law enforcement. Important differences exist for each category, but state statutory law usually covers both categories in a single emergency exemption statute. A typical emergency exemption statute is patterned after §11-106 of the Uniform Vehicle Code and has these features:
• The vehicle must be an authorized emergency vehicle equipped with specified warning lights and siren. Law enforcement vehicles often are given the exclusive right to display colored lights, but many states specify red lights for fire, rescue, ambulance, and law enforcement vehicles.
• To claim the exemption, the authorized emergency vehicle must be responding to an emergency call or in pursuit of an actual or suspected violator of the law.
• The exemption may allow the authorized emergency vehicle to park or stand, exceed speed limits, proceed past red traffic signals and stop signs, and disregard rules governing direction of travel or turning.
• The exemption applies only if required warning devices are being operated. Depending on the state, the required warning devices may be BOTH warning lights and a siren, or warning lights but not a siren, or a siren but not warning lights. In a few states, the speed exemption does not require either warning lights or a siren, but the right-of-way exemption requires activation of both warning lights and a siren.
Chapter 6 - Module 1 - Page 122

 

Logic, experience, blah blah, the laws of physics don't care about his badge or his skill.

And I never argued that the pickup driver was somehow in the right. Just that the cop, who was too close to see what was happening in front of him, who was too close to react to anything happening in front of him, was driving in an unsafe and unnecessary manner.

 

Again, you’re making the false assumption based off the dashcam angle. It doesn’t create an accurate perspective from the trooper’s point of view.

Also, this is an FTO, who has what his superiors view as sound judgment and experience to train new recruits. The trooper has been trained, and is now training his recruit to drive in the same prescribed manner. Your argument is with the training program, which has been used for many years now.

 

Well, there's the fact that truck drivers are experts on everything... just ask them.

 

Cops never make mistakes because they’re trained.

 

I cannot make assumptions about what may or may not had been an active emergency. Apparently you can.
I can however, clearly see that the truck didn’t move over as he should have.

 

I don’t think you’ll find anyone that will claim LEOs are perfect. They are still people, after all. But to assume they are not more qualified than your average civilian, or truck driver, in regards to what they are trained to handle on a daily basis would be uncritical, and more often than not (please understand what I’m saying, this is not meant as a slight to anyone), their critics have little to no knowledge of what exactly it is they have been trained or the reasoning behind it, or what they experience on a day-after-day basis.

 

Interesting, we have several former law enforcement as members here and they don’t seem to agree with you.

 

I'm not assuming anything. I know that visibility while driving a smaller vehicle that closely behind a large vehicle is severely limited. I also know that following that closely doesn't allow for proper reason time.

And I don't care what the training is, I expect that police officers should not drive in an unsafe manner unless it is necessary to do so. That's not unreasonable.

Sure, no problem. I'm assuming that no police officer will make any judgements on how I drive a truck unless they have training and experience in driving a big rig, right?

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.