According to this article over at ThisweekLive, the Burnsville Police Department is fed up with its officers being hit during traffic stops by those motorists that don’t move over while the police department makes its quota and is doing something about it: calling a press conference.
I personally move over when I see a cop sitting on the side of the road with their emergency lights activated and I always wonder why some don’t do the same but I assume that those in the lanes next to me aren’t paying attention or are too transfixed with the bright, blinky, colorful, rotating lights to move until it’s too late. Also known as “rubbernecking”, this serious offense which leads to unnecessary traffic jams should be a crime here in our fine state with the punishment being death by press conference.
While I’m holding out for some genius innovation to come from the Burnsville PD’s press conference on July 23rd, I’m expecting more of the same… Perhaps an end to all pointless traffic stops and the insistence that when people are pulled over, they are pulled over safely instead of in the median (ala Tommy Boy Black Sheep (thanks Daniel) or Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke)?
What do you think? Will this press conference do anything to change the unfortunate accidents that are caused by drunken and/or clueless assholes who hit police officers conducting traffic stops?
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July 22nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I don’t see much good in a press conference, no. I would like to see a state law passed requiring motorists to move over and/or slow down for emergency or maintenance vehicles. This is law in other states (Iowa is one I believe).
These people are on the side of the road doing their job. It only makes sense to cut them as much slack as possible rather than making their job place more hazardous than necessary, regardless of the purpose that put them on the side of the road.
How would you like it if cars came cruising through your office at 75 MPH less than 10′ from your chair?
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Pear Head, that’s state law here as well. I think the problem is more in people aren’t doing it, and there’s little to no enforcement unless an accident happens. But it is Minnesota state law.
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Interesting to learn. They (MnDOT) should post it prominently as our neighbors to the south do then. I’ve never seen it posted on a highway anywhere in the state.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I find it hysterical that I cannot load the website for the actual statute here (as of 19:13 CDT) but you can see a PDF of a flier put out by AAA to let you know about this little known law.
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:07 am
I know it’s posted on 35W northbound out of Burnsville near Cliff Road, if I recall correctly. I am frequently recalling incorrectly though.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Mr Marcos got a ticket for “failure to change lanes” while driving past a traffic stop…and no, he wasn’t rubbernecking, he just could’t merge over at that point.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Information on the press conference is here from the Star Tribune and you can view the dash cam video of the most recent accident here (WMV format).
Other than appealing to Minnesota drivers to adhere to the law which was enacted to protect officers, nothing was done to really make anything stick. Unfortunate on all counts :(
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I would think Mr Marcos has a valid not-guilty plea then. The statute clearly states “if it is possible to do so” twice in regards to moving over.
What is interesting is the MN statute doesn’t dictate that the driver slow down if they can’t move over. Other states I’ve seen this in appear to be “slow down and/or move over”.
It’s also interesting to note that you can be cited for this hours after the incident occurs, not just on the spot (which makes sense from a law-enforcement standpoint).
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:42 pm
The video is quite amazing. What’s interesting though is that I thought it would depict the officer standing near the white line being struck. Instead what it showed is the oncoming car (a Jeep?) more than halfway over the white line. Clearly a case of something gone seriously wrong in that vehicle or (more likely) someone paying too much attention to the vehicles that were stopped.
They tell you in drivers ed that you will steer where you look. This looks like a good case of that.
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 pm
(ala Tommy Boy…)
You mean Black Sheep right?
Daniel llol
July 26th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Just to clarify…. I was in fact pulled over for not changing lanes, but I didn’t get a ticket for that since I would have had to pull off a “risky maneuver” (one that I probably do at least twice a day getting onto 35E, but not in front of a row of 4 cops). I was given a ticket for no proof of insurance, which was of course dropped in court.
The cop said they were doing a sting, handing out a lot of tickets to heighten awareness of the “move over” law, which was less than a year old at the time. After a short lecture I received a yellow pamphlet on the subject with some pictures and historical data. I was tempted to ask him for the blue one on speeding, but I figured he might get the last laugh on that one.