Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/02/09/no-charges-for-speeding-cop-wh.html
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Wonder what would have happened if they failed to yield and hit the speeding cop, instead of the other way around…
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All people want is for the law to be equally applied to the police.
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iokiyaleo
(see also Republicans re: unions)
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I hate to say this…they are at fault.
They were crossing left through the lane of traffic into the opposite lane. It is their responsibility to ensure the lane of travel they are crossing through is completely clear.
I am grateful they survived without major injuries. I hope that officer is at the very least severely reprimanded by his superiors.
EDIT:
@thekaz they would have been at fault either way, regardless of his speed. They are crossing the lane of travel.
@lasermike026 same thing…they are the ones crossing the lane. So even if this was a civilian speeding, they wouldn’t be prosecuted or fined.
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It’s just a FEW bad apples.
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I want those stupid flags with the blue stripe gone too.
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My experience with vehicle accidents is that someone is almost always charged for whatever they were doing.
That said, they sure did pull right the fuck out in front of him.
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For surviving surely.
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They didn’t have to survive to give the cop such a hard time. Selfish commons.
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It’s amazing that the rest of that sentence never seems to strike home…
if you have a few bad apples, its supposed to imply something something about the whole barrel.
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I would say that both of them were at fault, the older driver for expecting the other car to slow down, and the policeman for driving too fast.
On a related note, I am tired of people turning right on red and then slowing the cars that have the green light and the right of way. If you are going to inconvenience in any way the driver with the right of way, don’t do it.
Get off my lawn! I mean, lane!
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That’s not true, at least anywhere I lived.
EDIT
Just looked, and the officer’s speed is considered above the usual limit for reckless driving in Tennessee - and when you are speeding to that level failure to yield can’t be expected since you cannot properly judge the distance covered by the speeding car.
The problem is that both reckless driving and failure to yield are subjective to the prosecutor, so even though this is a pretty cut-and-dry case that I’ve been a part of before the prosecutor declared the officer wasn’t driving recklessly and therefore wasn’t causing the larger traffic sin in the law and said the (false) equivalence canceled each other out.’
Add in the officer’s record getting him terminated from another department, and there is no way on Earth civilians and this officer are being treated the same.
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I’m tired of drivers turning right on red illegally who manage to cut off both the cars with the right of way and pedestrians with the right of way.
One genius did this the other day right in front of me. They also ran the stop sign and got two wheels on the sidewalk–only for them to stop immediately for the traffic backed up at the traffic light a block away.
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were both of them at work, protecting citizens from dangerous drivers?
Seems they were both dangerous drivers, but I only expect one of them to not be.
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If Ferguson was off-duty, what was he doing driving a police cruiser?
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Many if not most cops drive their cars home.
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cc @Barradeno
While I will concur that local laws (municipal, town, city, state) may vary…I find this one has always been the case anywhere I’ve been around the U.S. If you are crossing a lane of travel, you are responsible for ensuring the “coast is clear” to do so.
Feel free to call any insurance company and ask them, or any police/sheriff department and they will same the same. I suggest Insurance companies because they specifically know the exact laws for those areas they service and often make claims decisions based completely on what the law is.
The speeding part is a mitigating factor, the issue is, they can estimate but do not know the exact speed being traveled. So even if it was a civilian, not the police, they would not be charged with any crime either I even doubt they’d be fined.
You can disagree with me all you like. I just went through this last year with my spouse crossing the lane of travel and thought the lane was clear and unfortunately an illegally parked truck blocked her vision of a fast moving vehicle in the second lane who then slammed into her. If he had been moving slower he could have stopped in time. Both the police and insurance blamed her fully. That is the law…unfortunately.
Like I said…I am glad the couple is relatively ok.
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And my wife got hit by a car going 25 mph above the speed limit turning left and the reckless driver got blamed for both the insurance and ticket.
Reckless driving typically gets the blame against a minor traffic offense - which failure to yield is.
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I would suggest this is less a case the older driver expected the oncoming car to slow down than the older driver simply not recognizing the excessive closing speed, more than half again the posted speed limit.
Not exculpatory, but surely a mitigating factor.
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