By RJ Beam
The motoring public seems to lose IQ points whenever blinking lights are at a scene. It causes a mix of stress, anger and genuine fear of death for the officer stuck standing directing traffic in the road.
Here are the thoughts that go through the mind of an officer directing traffic.
1) Slow the hell down!
2) I don’t care who you are – stop is STOP, no is NO, closed is CLOSED.
3) I am not the public relations officer, now MOVE IT.
We open up a lane of traffic and start to motion vehicles to start moving, slowly. Every third or so car has a busy body driving. It never fails that they’ll need to stop, roll down the window and ask a list of questions. “What happened? Who was driving? Are they okay?”
4) I see you have GPS. Try using it, and move.
5) I’m happy I am not a firefighter or EMT right now.
Standing outside the squad, I am keeping reasonable warm and dry in my jacket. The fire/EMS guys are in the ditch with a foot of slushy water, trying to work in the freezing cold. Their PPE might be warm, but on wet, cold, miserable nights it gets cold, and heavy. Wet and cold makes working miserable.
