The other day, I posted a column about safe driving speed. Let me begin here by reiterating that policing is an inherently dangerous enterprise, but there are some dangers which can be reduced somewhat by merely making some simple changes to certain behaviors. One of those is driving at safer speeds.
I want to use a video from the Street Survival Seminar to talk about the fact that there are too many incidents in which officers get into traffic collisions because of unsafe speeds when such speed is not necessary. Please be advised that this video is hard to watch — especially if you have kids like I do. Two young lives were ended, and a police career forever altered.
Tragedy on the Roadway: Orange, Conn.
Two squad cars are returning to their home jurisdiction after helping out a nearby agency with a large gathering. They were NOT en route to a call of any kind — they were going back to their own agency, and “passing through” a neighboring town. Note the speed of car from which this video was taken was taken, then watch for the other car pass him on the right. Two teenagers died that night, and the cop was subsequently jailed.
Okay, I think we can all agree that this officer DID NOT got up that day and say, “I’m going to kill two kids tonight.” In fact, I’d bet a waist-high stack of green money that he was a pretty damned good cop.
I bet too, though, that he wishes he’d been driving a little bit slower when this event happened.
Yes, that other car makes a left turn right in front of those two oncoming cars, but we all know that judging closing speed at night is not the easiest thing in the world for anyone to do — much less a novice driver. I’m of the opinion that they had a very reasonable expectation of successfully negotiating that turn.
At the instant the squad on the right hits the teens’ car, the squad on the left is doing 72 miles per hour. Obviously, the one on the right is going faster than that. And did you observe the absence of lights and sirens that a young driver is taught to look for as a sign to yield?
This incident didn’t have to happen. Let’s use it to prevent another one like it.
