hmm that's awful funny cp702, i know this is possible because i've done it, so what your telling me is if you are seriously injured or your wife/gf is dying you wouldn't do what was explained to save your life or get your spouse to the hospital? you need a VALID reason to do it, i don't care what that spoiler say's, i will argue it because i already said, i have had to do it.. Sorry but i'm not going to let "traffic laws" or police stand in the way of an emergency especially if i need to get to the hospital NOW, FYI it say's nothing about not being able to do it

Slimory,

I'll explain how this scenario you described would play out in Florida, and this likely applies to almost anywhere in the US (I could see exceptions in small towns, but I digress). My agency policy restricts us from doing any type of "escort" for civilians, so if I stopped a vehicle that was enroute to the hospital I would not be able to escort them for safety reasons. I would call an ambulance at that point which is really what the people should have done from the beginning. I can see where it is important for someone to get to the hospital quickly, but that doesn't give anyone the right to violate laws or place other people's lives in danger by driving in a reckless manner.

If what you say is true in Canada, I would just hate to see a tragedy occur from an unskilled and untrained driver violating traffic safety in order to reach the hospital. However, concepts that work in the United States may not be suited for use in Canada or other countries and vice versa. It'd be a disaster here if people were allowed to do as you describe (and that's an understatement if you've seen how terrible some US drivers are). :smile:

Bailey23: If someone is bleeding heavily or something like that, would you be able to transport them to the hospital in your car?

Some guy hauling ass down the highway around here at one point got pulled over for doing 106mph trying to get his pregnant wife to the hospital and got arrested. Later after the news story went out the officer was placed on administrative leave and the incident was investigated. The papers called him cruel as he did not offer to escort the husband to the hospital, or bring the wife there himself and still charged the guy with some stupid crime. Law or no law, there are good excuses sometimes. lol Anyway the guy ended up having the charge against him dropped. And the wife and kid were fine.

Edited May 7, 201213 yr by unr3al

LAWL! did anyone else catch him say "i didnt see you behind me" also those freaking out about her pulling her gun, do you see that as soon as he was compliant she holstered her gun, and really when she got close she was barrel in his face so took a less aggressive stance. I do love how he pulled to the left... x_x really? also i love how apparently in florida they dont have a move over law, which in my state means no matter what the colors are, if there are flashing lights on the side of the road you either move over a lane if possible or slow way down. ALSO did anyone hear her say that a police car the day before was stolen and the driver was shot and killed? hell ya pull out that gun on the driver for not yielding right away.

anyways, she was fully justified, and if anything I want to shake her hand and say "thank you" cause who watchs the police? I do feel if he had pulled over earlyer it would have worked out fine and not turned into this huge ordeal.

To add to the escort deal I have a couple of stories for ya. In our fire district, our troopers have the ability to actually run escort for civilians under special circumstances. like one time we needed lumber fast, so we got it at lowes, and the lowes truck had an escort, however it was no 100mph if anything it was at or less then the speed limit, just without stopping haha.

Also Im a volunteer firefighter, and have blue lights on my truck which allows me to run code 3 for emergency. I was running around 80+ down a country highway, (just hit the open flats so i hadnt opened up yet) and the state trooper just chilling on the side of the road flipped on his lights and pulled out behind me, as I started to pull over he pasted and waved at me to follow. to bad he was leaving me in the dust cause the trucks governor is only 105 x_x

Edited May 7, 201213 yr by stormoffires

@cp702, i didn't mean to make it sound that way, but like i said you need a very good reason to be doing it, if i were to get pulled over and the officer wouldn't escort me but i had to wait for an ambulance which could take ours, there is simply no way i'm waiting for an ambulance.

@Bailey23- unlike the US the police aern't really concerned about road safety, they aern't sitting on the highway all the time like state troopers

EDIT: they are concerned about road safety but not as much as we'd like

Edited May 7, 201213 yr by Slimory

cp702: Policy states I can't transport medical emergencies in my patrol car, but that's just "policy". I was previously an Emergency Medical Technician so I have more advanced training than a police officer has in terms of medical treatment, so I'd do what I can (I keep a trauma bag in my trunk as well) and wait for an ambulance. If I'm close to a hospital, then I might go ahead and transport in my car if I think it is life-threatening, but most injuries aren't. Now, I did drive my zone partner to the hospital when he got very sick on duty but that is a different story and he was too far away from a fire station to the point that I could get him to the hospital running code before the ambulance would have even arrived.

Unr3al: I wouldn't ticket or arrest a man for driving his wife to the hospital in a reckless manner, but I wouldn't allow him to continue doing so after my stop. Drive the speed limit or wait on an ambulance. If he wrecks and his wife and unborn child die in the crash, I don't see the benefit of driving 106MPH... but that's just me lol.

stormoffires: Florida does have the move-over law (FS 316.126(b) http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0300-0399/0316/Sections/0316.126.html). It's near impossible to enforce because if I'm stopped then it is going to take another deputy to pull over the vehicle, AND, I have to have them on radar or laser to prove their speed. Enforcement of this law only works when two LEOs are working together to enforce this specifically because the officer with lights activated must be actively on a call such as a traffic stop or car crash (I can't just sit on the side of the road with my lights on and then pull people over).

fair enough bailey, guess i only see it when we are on MVA calls when the FD are called out and pd will flag folks over. Best thing ever happened when I was running running traffic control on a 2lane country highway and our rescue is handling a head on, well this gal comes flying up on our scene and my capt throws a handful of chaff/rocks(everything was to small and he was to slow for any damage to be caused) from the side of the road onto the windsheild of the car to get the driver to slow down. The guy in the car gets out and is yellin all sorts of stuff when the state trooper walks over hand on gun, "sir get back in your car or i will arrest you for reckless driving, and endangering emergency personal" he then turns to us "no worries i saw it all, good work" lol our troopers and us get along great

Bit late in responding to this, and I mostly only browsed through the last two pages quickly after reading the first two, but I'm with others in that she was justified.

If the officer was off duty, it's odd he should be 'rushing' anywhere without any lights and such, more so that he didn't stop or apparently send notification to let her know he was going somewhere. I mean if he wasn't using his lights, he wasn't in a dire rush, so why couldn't he just pull over and be like "I'm on my way to so and so for this", etc.

It took her practically five minutes to catch up to him at that to begin with and once she did it took her slightly over two minutes for him to finally pull over (which it did seem like he was 'running', considering his lane changing and her matching him identically with lights and siren going, it's hard for him to say he couldn't have noticed it for two minutes), and you can hear her trying to confirm things at that as well.

Considering a lot of the unfortunate incidents within police/federal organiziations the past couple years (eg; ICE's incident just in february if anyone recalls that), I think a lot of officers of any sort are taking the 'Just incase' route these days even with other officers, especially if they don't know them personally.

Short story; The guy was trail blazing it somewhere, fast enough it took her that long to catch up, and then he's gonna say he didn't notice her for the whole two minutes behind him matching is lane adjustments and not passing him even when he slowed down (slowed down being a loose phrase since she said they were still going near 80 I believe by the time he pulled over), so I think she was good in her call.

I've been with DPD for about 10 years now, 3 years prior with ATL PD... that being said, there's a big difference between doing your job and knowing your job. This officer was doing her job, however failed at the bigger picture of knowing her job. Many of you may not understand what I'm getting at, and that's fine... because Iife isn't black/white it's very much grey.

Side note: I believe all LEO's should read Sun Tzu "Art of War" a very masterful piece of knowing ones self, your environment, your capabilities, distinguishing the enemy within yourself before any other enemy, and "How to look at the bigger picture".

Later,

wait what? how did she fail at "knowing her job" idk her thoughts, and I dont assume to know police thoughts as I am active duty which is its own world. But if anything she did her job very well within her knowledge. I have also read Art of War, and its by far one of the greatest books ever, but not sure how she failed at the big picture. So if i understand what your saying, she should have not stopped him cause it doesnt fit in the big picture? what is the big picture. I know what mine is for what I do, and people will live or die from it. Is not police to protect and enforce? So your saying the local pd guy was legit in what he was doing and only she was at fault? Im not trying to cause issues, but i am very curious on what the "big picture" is.