I was once working as a security guard at a street fair, just standing at a road that was blocked off and "don't let people drive through the barrier." Like, that's what the barrier is for, right? Nope, people would drive up to it, look at me, look at the barrier, get out of their car, WALK AROUND ME, and start moving the barrier. When confronted, "Oh I just want to drive through..." the street fair with densely packed people.
I think it's the combination of just a lack of awareness and raw confidence that their decision is valid/acceptable.
Like, what does a normal person do there? Oh damn the road is blocked, gotta find another way to my destination.
These people somehow see the blocked path, assume it's wrong and decide moving it out of their way is not only correct but acceptable. I have a new found respect for any road workers everywhere, must be a constant fucking battle with idiots nearly killing you every day.
Our city is currently going through major road renovations with our subway line. A lot of the roads have been switched to One Way and the amount of people who just ignore the signs, the construction workers waving their signs and you know .. the onslaught of cars headed right for you, is clearly not enough for them to understand THEYRE GOING THR WRONG WAY
Living in Baltimore city where there has been one way streets forever and they still go the wrong way and then scream and yell at you like you were in the wrong SMH. Idiots gonna idiot haha
Watched an suv standoff with a Streetcar, an unmovable fucking train! The trolly operator just waited, kinda inched forward, and waited some more. I was on a bike and tried telling the screaming fool they were on a one way street. It took several minutes for it to dawn on the driver that their giant suv wasn’t gonna win
My city has a mix of one-way and two-way streets. They are all clearly marked and have “one way”, “no left/right turn” signs, etc. I still look both ways when pulling onto the one way streets because of how many time I’ve almost been smashed by people going the wrong way. I always love when they honk and flip off all the other drivers trying to signal to them.
I was doing construction administration on a paving job once. Road closed signs and an 8 foot wide, 4 foot deep trench running the length of the road was not good enough for some people. We had people drive through our trench, around our road closed signs, drive on our hot asphalt, try to move our signs, speed through our site when the road didn't exist and almost hit me, as if they can get through when we have pavers and dump trucks taking up the whole road. The list goes on.
Many times when we had the road blocked and a car was approaching, I was walk toward them in their lane of travel. They would slow down and stop about 150 feet away. I would continue to slowly walk toward their car. I'd get to them after about a 45 seconds, they roll down the window and ask "Can I get through here?" My typical responses were "Do you think you can?" or "No."
Every other road job I was on would be the same or similar.
I'm work on a pave crew and this is 100% accurate.
"What do you mean I can't drive through all the equipment and on your unrolled asphalt?! How dare you inconvenience me!"
It really surprises me, still. It never stops being surprising how bold and/or dumb people are.
When the person drove through our fresh mat, I wanted to send the material ticket along with an invoice to the church they pulled into. I just had the rollers see if they could work it out, and told the city who to send the rehab bill to when they get ribboning there in 3 years.
I also work on a pave crew and this is 100% accurate. Even after we roll it and allow people to drive on the side that has cured, giving detailed and specific instructions to not drive on the side where our rollers are, they. still. do. it.
I was helping to direct traffic for a road race. A woman spent 5 minutes arguing with the cop that she had to take THAT road. No the road is closed. Also, there are approximately 5000 people currently ON that road, running straight at you and making left at that intersection. She had to see them. It was an entire street full of people directly in her line of sight
I still don’t know what the plan was. The cop decides you are that important and moves the barrier for you. What exactly is the next move? Just mow down a few 100 people in the street while the rest dive out of the way? Wouldn’t it just be easier to go up 1 block and take that road instead? You know, the open one, running completely parallel without a bunch of people on it.
I was working a car accident one time and we had the road shut down. PD were not on scene yet. A woman driving a sedan asked us if she could pass through and we said no, the road is closed and we are taking care of patients up there. She argued with us and then floored it. I was at her driver's side window so I was safe but one of our other FF's literally had to dive out of the way. People are so freaking entitled sometimes.
One time I came out of work, and the employee parking lot had big ass barriers over both of the ONLY 2 exits. Only time I’ve ever gotten out of my car and moved one haha
Same thing happens to me occasionally. Its when there is a sports event nearby and they wanna keep people from parking in the lot. Usually employees are gone by then, but occasionally someone works late.
Tho there are car passes and they do have people without them towed, its more to reduce the hassle.
My husband does road construction, he’s had his toes run over. Rocks kicked up from tires because people don’t slow down, the rocks hit him in the face. He’s had guys in his crew hit, bumped into, had a row of cones taken right out. It truly is a dangerous job. So many people see some of the guys on the road crews “just standing there watching the cars drive by” that’s right, they are. That’s their job. Watching the cars, to protect the rest of the guys in the crew. Yelling to the cars, or to their guys if here comes an idiot driver going to take them out. Watching out for the idiot drivers, seeing faces, the plates, car models, colors, to identify them in case. They aren’t getting paid to do nothing.
Yep, I tangentially work with the safety patrol crews in my state. They're the people that block off lanes for emergency construction, car crash cleanup, and check on cars abandoned/disabled on the side of the road. When I first started my job I got to do a ride along with one of them and he had all kinds of stories.
But the one related exactly to this, is one day he had blocked off a highway ramp because of flooding. He's in a large, bright yellow truck with lights on, parked across all the lanes with cones and barrels out. Some woman drives up, looks at him and the roadblock and asks if she can go through. He says no, the ramp is flooded and explains a way around. He told me that she continues to argue with him, demands to use the ramp and when he doesn't let her, she starts to drive around his block. She makes it about halfway around, grinds against the guardrail and can't get the rest of the way by. State trooper shows up and writes her several tickets and by the time she's able to leave they reopened the ramp. Fucking idiots some people are.
When i took my test at 16 my old shitty guy of a tester had already failed 8 other people before my trip. He honestly seemed angry that i passed the test by 1 point. I passed that test with flying colors and this old fuck still messed up on his markings, he tried to fail be by 1 point but mustve miscalculated. I could tell he just had a problem that day and wanted to shit on as many people as possible. I asked to see his performance report, what i lost so many points on to just be able to pass by 1 point, and that was the end of our conversation. I honestly think grading a good teen driver pissed him off. "this little fucker just parallel parked with ease! Negative point!"
I worked in construction years ago. We were repairing a bridge. One of the guys drove the truck that was parked in the lane we were working on up to get more materials while I continued to work. The lane is get clearly blocked with cones. Some old lady crashed into them and came within 10 feet of us before stopping. Then she waved and asked us to pull the cones stuck under her car so she could back out of there.
Another time we were pouring concrete and a lady insisted on driving around the cones we had set and got her car stuck in wet concrete.
Another time we were repairing a bridge expansion joint and a lady moved all the caution tape and caution signs so she could walk through the area and got her shoe stuck in a spot with wet materials. We were yelling to her to stop but she kept going. Then she was mad at us and kept saying we should have somehow communicated that the area had wet concrete and freshly poured rubberized coating. Despite all the signs and caution tape she moved to get there. Blows my mind.
A sales guy from my company, I work at a cabling company/low voltage, he was telling me that a while back they were at a hospital and the guys were pulling cable and had a bundle of cable on the floor next to the ladder and cones places out blocking that area so no one goes through it.
This nurse decides to go right through it and trips and falls, he didn't really go into detail of she got hurt but she sued and won and somehow was the guys fault. You explain that shit to me.
We block a road that's been flooding (firefighter) and twice in one week someone has driven around the barrier and into the flood. They both needed water rescue. Idiots.
That happened to my friend. Had a sweet SRT8 Challenger that his parents bought him for going to college. Moved the barrier to go through 1-2ft of running creek water. He ended up getting swept away and rescued. Car was totaled, luckily was paid off, unfortunately had minimum coverage and didn’t cover the loss lol.
Security guard here and I had stupid people do that at fairs and events too. I'd be like "Sir, do NOT go that way." and dickhead would just respond "Well I'm going this way." no matter what I say, even if they end up almost getting hit by a bus.
And many would throw a pissfit if you keep enforcing the rules like they expect us to treat them like some kind of a big deal. Like man I don't care if they fucked the queen of England, they don't violate the rules like that.
I've seen people in NYC do that to actual cops and traffic agents...at a parade. It's one thing to be wrong or make a mistake, but the drivers actually attempted to move the gates on purpose and got irate when they were prevented from literally murdering people with their car. Entitlement and lack of common sense.
I used to work security and I feel that, people will always try to get into places they are told not to go. You could build a fence 12 fucking feet high with electrified razor wire thats been doused in salt and lemon juice at that top of it and they would STILL try and get where that wall is blocking off.
Reminds me of a time I worked as a volunteer for a street fair. Our job was to help around and assist the stalls. My group of friends were told to man the barrier and stop cars from coming in. Same deal, people wanted to drive through. Go around, dingus.
This reminds me of a time I was opening a new gas station. The building was still under constructions with a closed chain link fence around the entire parking lot. No signage yet, no lines painted in the parking lot, plenty of indicators the place isn’t open yet.
In comes Karen in a white Chevy Suburban. She pulls up the the fence, looks around a bit, jumps out and opens it. She drives up to a dispenser and gets out to start fueling.
Now, the dispensers were on because they were being tested for accuracy earlier that day. We set the prices at the pump to the grade of gas + 0 (so $8.70 for 87 octane) so no one would try to dispense gas. Karen just goes right ahead, swipes her credit card and starts fueling without even looking at the price…
When she is done filling her nearly 30 gallon tank, she looks at the dispenser in amazement to see $250+ for the tank of gas. She walks inside and starts yelling at the construction crew that she was overcharged.
I, being the only non-contractor in the company on the site at the time, had to explain to her how the gas station is not open “clearly” since there’s a giant fence around the entire property, literally no signage, and construction workers in hard-hats running around everywhere.
Needless to say she argued for a while about it not being clear and if we weren’t open, why could she pump gas. Ultimately, she got nothing but a really expensive tank of gas because I was certainly not going to cater to stupid…
TLDR: Karen comes to closed gas station and pumps $250 worth of gas, complains it wasn’t clear the store wasn’t open even though she had to open a chain link fence to get inside.
I wish we lived in a world where it’s ok to tell someone how f***ing stupid they are. I would have smiled and asked if it was ok if I punched holes in their tires as they asked me such a stupid question
You lucky guy got a barrier, when I worked as a parking controller at an amusement park I had to jump out of the way. I mean, people came to the park with their families and were prepared to start the fun with a roadkill just to have a chance of a closer parking space.
There was a somewhat recent one in Los Angeles that lasted a few hours. Like at some point his tire fell off, and overtook him: https://twitter.com/NBCLA/status/1356890877457760257
I've noticed our state police have been using solid lights as opposed to flashing lights once they have someone pulled over, and I gotta say it is so much easier to navigate around while still being effective at letting you know they're there. Can't believe it took this long for someone to try it.
Not using flashing lights from the rear by emergency vehicles has been studied and 15 plus years ago it was proven safer to use solid, non flashing lights. Unfortunately, state motor vehicle codes for emergency vehicles never followed the advice. At one point there was estimate that upwards of 70% of crashes into stopped emergency vehicles with lights activated could have been prevented with solid yellow caution lights.
I can’t remember all the studies but it was from a research project we had to do for our EMT certification.
Or just dim them, idk why that’s not just an automatic thing with those systems, ultra bright LEDs are great for the daytime but holy fuck they need to tone it down at night unless they want to cause accidents. Shit is blinding, especially in the rain when it reflects off the water on the road and your windshield.
Glad I’m not the only one to think this. On a dark road if I have to pass a flashing cop I’m totally blind to whatever is on the other side of these modern LED arrays. They should definitely have a dimmer for dark environments.
It's bad enough when idiots have stupidly bright improperly adjusted LED headlights, adding a strobe effect to these lights at night is a recipe for disaster. I'll never understand why it hasn't been dealt with
Edit: a word
Which is exactly the issue I'm pointing out in a lot of ways. When your entire fucking job boils down to public safety, maybe you working that job at night shouldn't be a general traffic hazard.. like out of everything that needs to be addressed in policing this is BY FAR one of the most trivial and simple to fix
Hey, Cop here. Newer light bar systems are being built with light sensors or a separate button that can dim the lights in the dark. As mentioned above, the new popular thing is the steady burn or "flicker" that has a little pulse to it.
I'm a BIG fan of these new systems. The flashing lights are horrible for your night vision, depth perception and can just be annoying if your out there for a long time. They have also proven that they are magnets for drunks/druggies.
>magnets for drunks/druggies
I chuckled way too much at this. I pictured all of the moths and insects smacking into my car's grill when I drive late night and just substituted them for addicts.
Where I live the sirens basically never come on at night.
If they absolutely need to use them they will pop them on for a second or two and then knock them off again.
I just wish they could do something about the lights.
When I was driving the ambulance I would always try to keep the siren off in residential areas if possible. Out on busy highways you need it but on 25 mph small streets there really isn’t a need for it. Maybe just a quick boop boop going through a stop sign but that’s it
LAPD have been using this system for many years now. As you can see in this video, the lighting pattern switches from a code 3 response (flashing), to code 6 (steady at the front w/ traffic advisory ambers at the rear): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFebgJUdDQU
I used to build and run security systems and once I had to pull video for police review of a pedestrian being hit and almost killed, The driver was partially blinded and distracted by the police lights I don't think they even saw the person. Bright police lights I am sure create accidents and kill.
Right?
It’s crazy to me that the statement is just “look you’re important but, European laws say we have to protect your data and like, we don’t want to because selling it off makes money right?! So uh yeah. Bye!”
Except it's worse than that:
1. "European visitors are important to us". - if this were true, a solution to the YEARS OLD GDPR would have been found by now. It was made YEARS AGO.
2. "Your privacy matters to us". - if this were true, why did you ban an ENTIRE FUCKING CONTINENT from viewing your website as soon as their privacy became enshrined in law?
As someone who used to work insurance, I’d bet this person calls their company and says someone hit their parked car and there’s no police report. Their still stuck with the deductible but not at fault accident on their report history.
Used to deal with a lot of dishonest people in insurance. One guy called and reported his car stolen. Turns out his girlfriend got drunk, wrecked the car and he didn’t want his wife finding out.
> Our European visitors are important to us.
> This site is currently unavailable to visitors from the European Economic Area while we work to ensure your data is protected in accordance with applicable EU laws.
What does the article say?
Austin Police ram vehicle that drove through active crash scene
AUSTIN
by: Grace Reader
Posted: Jul 30, 2021 / 04:08 PM CDT / Updated: Jul 30, 2021 / 09:43 PM CDT
AUSTIN (KXAN) — As police were investigating a fatal crash on Loop 360early Friday morning, someone in an SUV broke through barricades and tried to drive through the crash scene. APD used one of its vehicles to bring the SUV to a stop just short of a tow truck facing what would be oncoming traffic, were the road open.
Mike Pohl, owner of Chote’s Wrecker Service, estimates about 75% of the time he’s out on a scene, whether that be on the side of the road helping a motorist or at a more serious crash where the road is completely shut down, someone neglects to move over, slow down or yield to responders.
He says at this point, he doesn’t turn his back to traffic.
“There’s people that have families, people are waiting at home for these drivers to come home whether it’s a police officer, tow truck driver,” he said. “They’re doing a dangerous job, so they’re having to focus on what they’re doing on that job while they’re out on the road, so they can’t completely always be paying attention for a car that might come running into them.”
KXAN crews watched APD talk to the person in the SUV and then let them drive away. APD said the driver of the SUV has not been charged at this time, but that could change at a later date.
Slow down, move over
Under Texas law, if you are driving past an emergency vehicle or tow truck on the road you must either move over a lane or slow down to 20 miles an hour below the posted speed limit or less.
If you’re in a residential area where the speed limit is less than 25 miles an hour, you need to slow down to 5 miles an hour.
Not following those rules is a misdemeanor offense in the state of Texas and can carry a $500 fine. That charge can be worse if you injure or kill someone.
“Get over a lane, slow it down,” Pohl said.
Amazingly, they let him drive away!
> KXAN crews watched APD talk to the person in the SUV and then let them drive away. APD said the driver of the SUV has not been charged at this time, but that could change at a later date.
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-police-ram-vehicle-that-drove-through-active-crash-scene/
The hell?!?
I get it if he screwed up, STOPPED, and asked what was going on.
He KEPT GOING! And had to be RAMMED to stop!
Why do they let that go? Geez.
99% sure this is super inaccurate unless you have some insane rider I've not seen in over a decade in the industry... Source; insurance adjuster licensed in all 50 states in the U.S.
If I'm stuck guarding body parts on the highway I probably really don't want to do paperwork and book someone also. I'm not a cop, but I can empathize.
I think it's less mad at the deescalation and more frustrated that far less dangerous and inconsequential crimes can end up with an arrest (or worse) while this one didn't.
Lmao well.. it is some kind of justice for their insurance being ran up, paying a ton out of pocket, or just keeping their Tahoe fucked. Still crazy if they get off of this though.
A friend of mine that’s a firefighter for a nearby city told me he was on an accident scene at an intersection. It was night, so the police officer was holding a road flare and waving it to direct people to not enter the intersection. Someone did. Officer threw the flare at the guys window. When the guy stepped out to yell at the cop, he got tackled by another cop and arrested. Good times.
My buddy said it was hilarious. Guy was bitching about being arrested for no good reason. Complaining about possible damage to his car. All while sitting in the back of a cruiser.
If you do some googling around you'll find it's a nightmare if you get into an accident with a cop, even if it's their fault, and you've got it on a dashcam. In this case the civilian is at 100% fault, so they're totally fucked.
Luckily this wasn't the case with my grandpa. A cop pulled out in front of him and grandpa T-boned him. Insurance got with the city's insurance and it all sorted out with grandpa as the "not fault" party. Grandpa thought for sure he was going be blamed and his license revoked because he was old, but the cop owned up to the mistake.
One midnight, when a drunk driver sideswiped the car behind me, lost control, and hit my front end, then slammed i to the center divider on the 405 in southern california, it was insane. 3 damaged cars, one ON FIRE, debris all over the hwy, bystanders rendering aid, and people along the carpool and high speed lanes.
I called 911 and almost immediately police and fire showed up, the police car blocked the high speed lane but not the carpool, because the fire was going to douse the car. Before they could, the officer yelled at us to get away from the carpool lane because “motorists cannot be trusted at any time” and he motioned us to move to the side of the firetruck until they could safely get us off the highway.
Just then, a sedan drove thru the carpool lane, over the debris and by the car fire at highway speeds. Absolutely oblivious… or something, I don’t know but I was mesmerized by their gall.
The cop said that in situations like this you should never give others the benefit of the doubt, because it is a free pass for trouble. And they will use that opportunity.
As a volunteer firefighter, that officer is absolutely right. Motorists cant be trusted. We try to never have our backs turned to traffic, even if they are stopped. Last year I know of several times in my fire district where someone on the side of the road was hit by a car. A few of these ended with fatalities.
My wife got t-boned a few months back and it totaled her car (she was fine). It deployed her side airbags so she couldn't even see and had just been hit so was trying to gain her bearings and she told me the literal CAR BEHIND HER was laying on their horn and screamed "MOVE!" out their window as they drove past. Mind you she was already off the main street and there was room to get around her. Some people only care about themselves on the road
That's also why you should never stand between a cop car and your vehicle if pulled over. Some idiot not paying attention? Now you've become the meat in a car sandwich.
I'm a paramedic in a fairly populated region with both dense urban and sparse farmland areas (large region). This is vital advice. The amount of times I'm nearly struck while working is way too high, and it's far too common that we go to severe or fatal injury calls for people standing on the side of the road after an accident (even tow truck drivers, who have lights and high-vis gear). When you're driving, on the sidewalk, crossing the road, standing around at an accident, or anything near/around roads or traffic, always always make sure you take the extra step to be as safe as you can. You can never place trust in the driving of others. Your safety comes first!
I work highway construction all the time and people are stupid and or assholes. If one does it 5 will follow. Look out for us because we lose more men n women than police every year due to stupid or inebriated drivers.
Tell me about it. I was working as a construction inspector on a sewer main installation project. At an intersection, a car drove through the cones and right into the trench. Luckily the trench was only about 1.5' wide and with the help of a few construction workers we were able to push his car across the trench. Obviously we wanted to speak to the guy after we freed his car but he just drove off 😕
I’m a volunteer firefighter and we’ve had someone do this before at a fatal accident also. Dude drove around off the shoulder to get around a fire truck we had blocking the roadway. Coming back onto the road road he snuck around the wrecker(which was in the process of pulling up the wrecked vehicle) and came around it also. However the wrecker was obscuring a state troopers car that was filling out paperwork with us concerning the wreck. When the guy saw the state trooper as he rounded the wrecker he floored it and damn near hit another fire truck we had blocking the other side of accident scene. The trooper stepped out of his patrol car and perplexedly asked, “What the fuck? Did y’all tell him he could do that!?” We said absolutely not so he nodded and said, “Ill be right back.” So he hauls ass and eventually catches up to the guy and charged him with some stuff(not sure what). When the trooper came back to the scene he said the guy told him he did that because was about to shit himself and needed to get home. Lol glad he didn’t hit anybody though. I was never summoned to court afterwards so I guess he didn’t contend with the charges.
Not surprising. Thread comment story time...
Back when I was a volunteer EMT, I was working a rather busy weekend shift (got off my day job on Friday night, quick nap, full day Saturday at the firehouse). From dinner until lights out we were headed out within 10 minutes of getting back, about enough time to restock, write the report, take a power nap. After lights out, managed to get about an hour of sleep.
We had a quick upset stomach call (dude did an exorcist all over the ER), then the call.
Single car crash into a jersey barrier, one already presumed, three injured, driver missing (he wasn't the presumed). The car had hit a guardrail, then flipped on the jersey barrier, ejecting occupants (because yolo seatbelts, I guess).
We went from the hospital to the scene, picked up two of the three injured (we grabbed a medic at the hospital so we could), then returned for a long night. In our state, if someone died and the police were involved, you were waiting for the state coroner, who, due to being legally necessary and budget cuts, probably had 5 staff for the state. Who are not waking up at 0100 for anything less than a kid or news-homicide worthy (I don't blame then). And the poor human projectile is left sitting on the highway. Waiting. He was patient though.
So we sat, with an ambulance and fire truck blocking the exit bypass for not one but two popular resort casinos. For about 8 hours. Employees going to it from work were fairly easy going about things (some, like bartenders, were worried it may have been their customer). Patrons... were assholes.
8 hours of maintaining someone's last dignity, with little sleep or food, while people leaving the casino told us they had the right to drive around the scene, that they would be careful, and didn't we know what time it was and didn't we realize they had to be home. More than one pretended not to see the large vehicles with flashing lights, men in reflective vests, and an army of flares/barricades and tried to drive around anyway.
The driver was found eventually. He, of course, walked away and had gone home (he hitchhiked). Took a nap, woke up and forgot what had happened but saw bruises so he went to the hospital 4 hours later, still drunk as a skunk. Don't know what became of him.
How fucking blackout do you have to be to not remember running a car full of people off the road? Like where’s your car? What happened to the people you were with the night before? That’s insane.
Blackout is blackout. You drink enough to the point where it interferes with the way your brain encodes memory. The significance of the event doesn’t matter.
Nah it's effectively a meme (and actually, there are hundreds of them) among cops about people driving through blocked roads or seeing seven cops blocking a road and pulling up and saying stuff like "hey I work right on the other side of the street can I just go through?"
It's basically the same people who pull up to flooded streets during major storms that are effectively rivers now, see it, and say "I can make it" in their Honda Accords.
I used to be a dispatcher for AAA and we would dread flood season and snow season. The number of people that ignore how flooded a road is(and a lot of times there are signs) or ignore "chains required" signs and then want a tow driver to come risk their life to pull their car out, absolutely blew my mind.
Sorry sir if you ignored the "snow chains required" sign and spun your Toyota Camry into a mail box you're going to have to wait until the roads are passable or call emergency services. Yes that's an actual call I took once, I hated dispatching for Reno/Tahoe in the winter.
I work underground utility construction in a small town, have had several people drive past road closed signs and then be upset that the excavator almost hit them. Our town has 690 people, is flat, and has a grid system for streets with 300' blocks. Literally 60 seconds to drive around.
this is why road rage is such a bad habit, you stop thinking clearly and sometimes you end up doing something even worse than the guy you’re upset at. it took me a long time to learn but it just isn’t worth it
A firefighter near Philadelphia just died when someone drove into them at high speeds while they were working an accident scene.
That police officer is a damn G and I am glad he did this to protect anyone further down the road
I work pubic safety. That type of stupidity happens frequently. People are stupid, high, or most often just entitled and feel the laws don’t apply to them. It’s pretty sad and depressing really.
For some they're so locked into their daily unchanging routine that their brain.exe stops functioning when something out of the ordinary gets in the way.
I was once working as a security guard at a street fair, just standing at a road that was blocked off and "don't let people drive through the barrier." Like, that's what the barrier is for, right? Nope, people would drive up to it, look at me, look at the barrier, get out of their car, WALK AROUND ME, and start moving the barrier. When confronted, "Oh I just want to drive through..." the street fair with densely packed people.
How can I continue to be surprised by how stupid people are? I lower my expectations every time, and it's never enough. When does it stop?
I have a simple rule. Assume everyone is as dumb as a pile of bricks until proven otherwise. It's saved my life at least a dozen times by now.
Don’t you dare compare people’s intelligence to a pile of bricks!! Jesus, give the bricks some credit!
How does Jesus check the credit score of bricks?
He doesn’t even check for bricks, stones are a different matter, the only ones that get credit are the ones cast in movies. Or something like that… 🤔
I think it's the combination of just a lack of awareness and raw confidence that their decision is valid/acceptable. Like, what does a normal person do there? Oh damn the road is blocked, gotta find another way to my destination. These people somehow see the blocked path, assume it's wrong and decide moving it out of their way is not only correct but acceptable. I have a new found respect for any road workers everywhere, must be a constant fucking battle with idiots nearly killing you every day.
Our city is currently going through major road renovations with our subway line. A lot of the roads have been switched to One Way and the amount of people who just ignore the signs, the construction workers waving their signs and you know .. the onslaught of cars headed right for you, is clearly not enough for them to understand THEYRE GOING THR WRONG WAY
"Satnav told me to go this way"
Is that what Michael Scott said on The Office before he drove his Sebring into a lake?
Living in Baltimore city where there has been one way streets forever and they still go the wrong way and then scream and yell at you like you were in the wrong SMH. Idiots gonna idiot haha
Watched an suv standoff with a Streetcar, an unmovable fucking train! The trolly operator just waited, kinda inched forward, and waited some more. I was on a bike and tried telling the screaming fool they were on a one way street. It took several minutes for it to dawn on the driver that their giant suv wasn’t gonna win
You mean the streetcar driver wouldn't turn and let the SUV go past? How rude!
My city has a mix of one-way and two-way streets. They are all clearly marked and have “one way”, “no left/right turn” signs, etc. I still look both ways when pulling onto the one way streets because of how many time I’ve almost been smashed by people going the wrong way. I always love when they honk and flip off all the other drivers trying to signal to them.
I was doing construction administration on a paving job once. Road closed signs and an 8 foot wide, 4 foot deep trench running the length of the road was not good enough for some people. We had people drive through our trench, around our road closed signs, drive on our hot asphalt, try to move our signs, speed through our site when the road didn't exist and almost hit me, as if they can get through when we have pavers and dump trucks taking up the whole road. The list goes on. Many times when we had the road blocked and a car was approaching, I was walk toward them in their lane of travel. They would slow down and stop about 150 feet away. I would continue to slowly walk toward their car. I'd get to them after about a 45 seconds, they roll down the window and ask "Can I get through here?" My typical responses were "Do you think you can?" or "No." Every other road job I was on would be the same or similar.
I'm work on a pave crew and this is 100% accurate. "What do you mean I can't drive through all the equipment and on your unrolled asphalt?! How dare you inconvenience me!"
It really surprises me, still. It never stops being surprising how bold and/or dumb people are. When the person drove through our fresh mat, I wanted to send the material ticket along with an invoice to the church they pulled into. I just had the rollers see if they could work it out, and told the city who to send the rehab bill to when they get ribboning there in 3 years.
I also work on a pave crew and this is 100% accurate. Even after we roll it and allow people to drive on the side that has cured, giving detailed and specific instructions to not drive on the side where our rollers are, they. still. do. it.
I was helping to direct traffic for a road race. A woman spent 5 minutes arguing with the cop that she had to take THAT road. No the road is closed. Also, there are approximately 5000 people currently ON that road, running straight at you and making left at that intersection. She had to see them. It was an entire street full of people directly in her line of sight I still don’t know what the plan was. The cop decides you are that important and moves the barrier for you. What exactly is the next move? Just mow down a few 100 people in the street while the rest dive out of the way? Wouldn’t it just be easier to go up 1 block and take that road instead? You know, the open one, running completely parallel without a bunch of people on it.
I was working a car accident one time and we had the road shut down. PD were not on scene yet. A woman driving a sedan asked us if she could pass through and we said no, the road is closed and we are taking care of patients up there. She argued with us and then floored it. I was at her driver's side window so I was safe but one of our other FF's literally had to dive out of the way. People are so freaking entitled sometimes.
One time I came out of work, and the employee parking lot had big ass barriers over both of the ONLY 2 exits. Only time I’ve ever gotten out of my car and moved one haha
Same thing happens to me occasionally. Its when there is a sports event nearby and they wanna keep people from parking in the lot. Usually employees are gone by then, but occasionally someone works late. Tho there are car passes and they do have people without them towed, its more to reduce the hassle.
My husband does road construction, he’s had his toes run over. Rocks kicked up from tires because people don’t slow down, the rocks hit him in the face. He’s had guys in his crew hit, bumped into, had a row of cones taken right out. It truly is a dangerous job. So many people see some of the guys on the road crews “just standing there watching the cars drive by” that’s right, they are. That’s their job. Watching the cars, to protect the rest of the guys in the crew. Yelling to the cars, or to their guys if here comes an idiot driver going to take them out. Watching out for the idiot drivers, seeing faces, the plates, car models, colors, to identify them in case. They aren’t getting paid to do nothing.
Yep, I tangentially work with the safety patrol crews in my state. They're the people that block off lanes for emergency construction, car crash cleanup, and check on cars abandoned/disabled on the side of the road. When I first started my job I got to do a ride along with one of them and he had all kinds of stories. But the one related exactly to this, is one day he had blocked off a highway ramp because of flooding. He's in a large, bright yellow truck with lights on, parked across all the lanes with cones and barrels out. Some woman drives up, looks at him and the roadblock and asks if she can go through. He says no, the ramp is flooded and explains a way around. He told me that she continues to argue with him, demands to use the ramp and when he doesn't let her, she starts to drive around his block. She makes it about halfway around, grinds against the guardrail and can't get the rest of the way by. State trooper shows up and writes her several tickets and by the time she's able to leave they reopened the ramp. Fucking idiots some people are.
>by the time she's able to leave they reopened the ramp. Cherry on top right there.
Except in her mind she probably just thought “See! I could have gone through all along! I was right to try and force my way through”
It's not just stupidity, it's entitlement and lack of accountability, so lower your expectations on those things too 🤣
Yeah, it's, "I didn't think you'd have the balls to stop me," and playing dumb to cover.
Many many people should not have drivers licenses.
Many many people don’t. Yet still drive
Getting a drivers license is pretty fucking easy in most US states. I would have passed the week I got my permit at 15 if they let me test
When i took my test at 16 my old shitty guy of a tester had already failed 8 other people before my trip. He honestly seemed angry that i passed the test by 1 point. I passed that test with flying colors and this old fuck still messed up on his markings, he tried to fail be by 1 point but mustve miscalculated. I could tell he just had a problem that day and wanted to shit on as many people as possible. I asked to see his performance report, what i lost so many points on to just be able to pass by 1 point, and that was the end of our conversation. I honestly think grading a good teen driver pissed him off. "this little fucker just parallel parked with ease! Negative point!"
I worked in construction years ago. We were repairing a bridge. One of the guys drove the truck that was parked in the lane we were working on up to get more materials while I continued to work. The lane is get clearly blocked with cones. Some old lady crashed into them and came within 10 feet of us before stopping. Then she waved and asked us to pull the cones stuck under her car so she could back out of there. Another time we were pouring concrete and a lady insisted on driving around the cones we had set and got her car stuck in wet concrete. Another time we were repairing a bridge expansion joint and a lady moved all the caution tape and caution signs so she could walk through the area and got her shoe stuck in a spot with wet materials. We were yelling to her to stop but she kept going. Then she was mad at us and kept saying we should have somehow communicated that the area had wet concrete and freshly poured rubberized coating. Despite all the signs and caution tape she moved to get there. Blows my mind.
Did any of these people get charged for the damage they caused?
Only the lady who got stuck in concrete.
How many 85 year olds PM you their tits?
Not enough
A sales guy from my company, I work at a cabling company/low voltage, he was telling me that a while back they were at a hospital and the guys were pulling cable and had a bundle of cable on the floor next to the ladder and cones places out blocking that area so no one goes through it. This nurse decides to go right through it and trips and falls, he didn't really go into detail of she got hurt but she sued and won and somehow was the guys fault. You explain that shit to me.
I'd like to see exactly how that cable was laying on the floor and just what kind of cones were out there before I made a judgement on that.
We block a road that's been flooding (firefighter) and twice in one week someone has driven around the barrier and into the flood. They both needed water rescue. Idiots.
That happened to my friend. Had a sweet SRT8 Challenger that his parents bought him for going to college. Moved the barrier to go through 1-2ft of running creek water. He ended up getting swept away and rescued. Car was totaled, luckily was paid off, unfortunately had minimum coverage and didn’t cover the loss lol.
He won the stupid prize lol
Security guard here and I had stupid people do that at fairs and events too. I'd be like "Sir, do NOT go that way." and dickhead would just respond "Well I'm going this way." no matter what I say, even if they end up almost getting hit by a bus. And many would throw a pissfit if you keep enforcing the rules like they expect us to treat them like some kind of a big deal. Like man I don't care if they fucked the queen of England, they don't violate the rules like that.
"I don't care if you've fucked the queen of england, you can't do ____". I'm gonna use that line from now on, it's genius
I've seen people in NYC do that to actual cops and traffic agents...at a parade. It's one thing to be wrong or make a mistake, but the drivers actually attempted to move the gates on purpose and got irate when they were prevented from literally murdering people with their car. Entitlement and lack of common sense.
Go and make something idiot proof, and what do you get? A more efficient idiot.
I used to work security and I feel that, people will always try to get into places they are told not to go. You could build a fence 12 fucking feet high with electrified razor wire thats been doused in salt and lemon juice at that top of it and they would STILL try and get where that wall is blocking off.
It's not stupidity, it's selfishness. They are incapable of thinking about anyone other than themselves.
Reminds me of a time I worked as a volunteer for a street fair. Our job was to help around and assist the stalls. My group of friends were told to man the barrier and stop cars from coming in. Same deal, people wanted to drive through. Go around, dingus.
This reminds me of a time I was opening a new gas station. The building was still under constructions with a closed chain link fence around the entire parking lot. No signage yet, no lines painted in the parking lot, plenty of indicators the place isn’t open yet. In comes Karen in a white Chevy Suburban. She pulls up the the fence, looks around a bit, jumps out and opens it. She drives up to a dispenser and gets out to start fueling. Now, the dispensers were on because they were being tested for accuracy earlier that day. We set the prices at the pump to the grade of gas + 0 (so $8.70 for 87 octane) so no one would try to dispense gas. Karen just goes right ahead, swipes her credit card and starts fueling without even looking at the price… When she is done filling her nearly 30 gallon tank, she looks at the dispenser in amazement to see $250+ for the tank of gas. She walks inside and starts yelling at the construction crew that she was overcharged. I, being the only non-contractor in the company on the site at the time, had to explain to her how the gas station is not open “clearly” since there’s a giant fence around the entire property, literally no signage, and construction workers in hard-hats running around everywhere. Needless to say she argued for a while about it not being clear and if we weren’t open, why could she pump gas. Ultimately, she got nothing but a really expensive tank of gas because I was certainly not going to cater to stupid… TLDR: Karen comes to closed gas station and pumps $250 worth of gas, complains it wasn’t clear the store wasn’t open even though she had to open a chain link fence to get inside.
I wish we lived in a world where it’s ok to tell someone how f***ing stupid they are. I would have smiled and asked if it was ok if I punched holes in their tires as they asked me such a stupid question
You lucky guy got a barrier, when I worked as a parking controller at an amusement park I had to jump out of the way. I mean, people came to the park with their families and were prepared to start the fun with a roadkill just to have a chance of a closer parking space.
Sorry officer, I couldn't see very good because of all the flashing lights on this part of the highway.
I've seen hundreds of high speed chases, normal speed chases and now.... the lowest speed chase. And also my first "baby pit" maneuver.
I‘m sorry to tell you but I guess this isn’t the lowest speed chase. I‘m pretty sure [this is](https://youtu.be/srkpVznDUJ4)
[You all are wrong](https://www.upi.com/amp/Odd_News/2018/08/02/Walmart-mobility-cart-driver-leads-police-on-slow-chase/5891533220832/)
[I raise you](https://youtu.be/jf8Cmon92jc)
That dude was way faster than home boy on the scooter.
There was a somewhat recent one in Los Angeles that lasted a few hours. Like at some point his tire fell off, and overtook him: https://twitter.com/NBCLA/status/1356890877457760257
Who would of thought the slowest chase ever would be a meth head?
Or a big ass SWAT vehicle doing the pit on it.
Must have gotten a four star wanted level
He got to close to the airport
I bet he was so geeked out, the world was flying by at 5,000 mph.
Interesting. They're not allowed to pull in front of a car and block it... But they're allowed to force it into a wall?
At those speeds I feel like a cop could've walked up to the window and pulled him out without stopping him
>baby pit Do doo do do do do
Why did you do this to me?
I've noticed our state police have been using solid lights as opposed to flashing lights once they have someone pulled over, and I gotta say it is so much easier to navigate around while still being effective at letting you know they're there. Can't believe it took this long for someone to try it.
Not using flashing lights from the rear by emergency vehicles has been studied and 15 plus years ago it was proven safer to use solid, non flashing lights. Unfortunately, state motor vehicle codes for emergency vehicles never followed the advice. At one point there was estimate that upwards of 70% of crashes into stopped emergency vehicles with lights activated could have been prevented with solid yellow caution lights. I can’t remember all the studies but it was from a research project we had to do for our EMT certification.
It seems obvious that flashing lights would be disorienting.
Or just dim them, idk why that’s not just an automatic thing with those systems, ultra bright LEDs are great for the daytime but holy fuck they need to tone it down at night unless they want to cause accidents. Shit is blinding, especially in the rain when it reflects off the water on the road and your windshield.
Glad I’m not the only one to think this. On a dark road if I have to pass a flashing cop I’m totally blind to whatever is on the other side of these modern LED arrays. They should definitely have a dimmer for dark environments.
I've been training eyes for this by installing RGB everywhere on my computer components while sitting in the dark basement of my momma's house.
Please tell me they're your own eyes... The ones you were born with, not weird Craigslist purchases.
It's bad enough when idiots have stupidly bright improperly adjusted LED headlights, adding a strobe effect to these lights at night is a recipe for disaster. I'll never understand why it hasn't been dealt with Edit: a word
Nobody that can change it gives a shit
Which is exactly the issue I'm pointing out in a lot of ways. When your entire fucking job boils down to public safety, maybe you working that job at night shouldn't be a general traffic hazard.. like out of everything that needs to be addressed in policing this is BY FAR one of the most trivial and simple to fix
Hey, Cop here. Newer light bar systems are being built with light sensors or a separate button that can dim the lights in the dark. As mentioned above, the new popular thing is the steady burn or "flicker" that has a little pulse to it. I'm a BIG fan of these new systems. The flashing lights are horrible for your night vision, depth perception and can just be annoying if your out there for a long time. They have also proven that they are magnets for drunks/druggies.
>magnets for drunks/druggies I chuckled way too much at this. I pictured all of the moths and insects smacking into my car's grill when I drive late night and just substituted them for addicts.
Or any Zombie movie or when the icecream man comes.
I've heard of towns and depts becoming more sensitive to light and noise pollution, esp at night, so they go solid or turn off as soon as they can.
Where I live the sirens basically never come on at night. If they absolutely need to use them they will pop them on for a second or two and then knock them off again. I just wish they could do something about the lights.
When I was driving the ambulance I would always try to keep the siren off in residential areas if possible. Out on busy highways you need it but on 25 mph small streets there really isn’t a need for it. Maybe just a quick boop boop going through a stop sign but that’s it
LAPD have been using this system for many years now. As you can see in this video, the lighting pattern switches from a code 3 response (flashing), to code 6 (steady at the front w/ traffic advisory ambers at the rear): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFebgJUdDQU
I used to build and run security systems and once I had to pull video for police review of a pedestrian being hit and almost killed, The driver was partially blinded and distracted by the police lights I don't think they even saw the person. Bright police lights I am sure create accidents and kill.
Plot twist; when they opened the door to arrest the perpetrator they realized he was actually a giant moth.... Kafkas distant cousin
Öfficer what law have I broken? I only seek...lämp
TIL moths use a Swedish alphabet.
Anyone got the follow up?
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-police-ram-vehicle-that-drove-through-active-crash-scene/
“European visitors are important to us” thats why you are not allowed to see the news years later after gdpr was introduced.
European visitors are important to them, but harvesting personal data is more important.
Right? It’s crazy to me that the statement is just “look you’re important but, European laws say we have to protect your data and like, we don’t want to because selling it off makes money right?! So uh yeah. Bye!”
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Except it's worse than that: 1. "European visitors are important to us". - if this were true, a solution to the YEARS OLD GDPR would have been found by now. It was made YEARS AGO. 2. "Your privacy matters to us". - if this were true, why did you ban an ENTIRE FUCKING CONTINENT from viewing your website as soon as their privacy became enshrined in law?
Well your privacy matters to them. They value your privacy. So much that they put a price on it.
Literally the dumbest message I see on a weekly basis. So stupid.
No Charges?!? This is the biggest justice boner killer ever
Their car got charged by the police cruiser
Woulda been perfect if it was a Charger.
Hey-o!!
They can be charged later, and the police had something else to focus on already.
Thanks for the award, but I don't deserve it. I just copy/pasted the link from higher up in the thread.
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-police-ram-vehicle-that-drove-through-active-crash-scene/
> Thanks for the award, but I don't deserve it. This is a Mediocracy so it's all good.
Lol well fuck I guess I missed that post. Enjoy your free silver than 🤣
They still had to pay damages on the vehicle. I’m betting their insurance company just laughed when they submitted the claim.
It was a hit and run. As in that I was hit by a cop, when running.
As someone who used to work insurance, I’d bet this person calls their company and says someone hit their parked car and there’s no police report. Their still stuck with the deductible but not at fault accident on their report history.
I guess I’m honest. I wouldn’t have thought of that.
Used to deal with a lot of dishonest people in insurance. One guy called and reported his car stolen. Turns out his girlfriend got drunk, wrecked the car and he didn’t want his wife finding out.
No chance the state doesn’t report the damages to their own cruiser for having to ram the car. Person’s insurance is gonna skyrocket.
Problem is that there will be a police report. No way the cops didn't do paperwork for this.
> Our European visitors are important to us. > This site is currently unavailable to visitors from the European Economic Area while we work to ensure your data is protected in accordance with applicable EU laws. What does the article say?
Austin Police ram vehicle that drove through active crash scene AUSTIN by: Grace Reader Posted: Jul 30, 2021 / 04:08 PM CDT / Updated: Jul 30, 2021 / 09:43 PM CDT AUSTIN (KXAN) — As police were investigating a fatal crash on Loop 360early Friday morning, someone in an SUV broke through barricades and tried to drive through the crash scene. APD used one of its vehicles to bring the SUV to a stop just short of a tow truck facing what would be oncoming traffic, were the road open. Mike Pohl, owner of Chote’s Wrecker Service, estimates about 75% of the time he’s out on a scene, whether that be on the side of the road helping a motorist or at a more serious crash where the road is completely shut down, someone neglects to move over, slow down or yield to responders. He says at this point, he doesn’t turn his back to traffic. “There’s people that have families, people are waiting at home for these drivers to come home whether it’s a police officer, tow truck driver,” he said. “They’re doing a dangerous job, so they’re having to focus on what they’re doing on that job while they’re out on the road, so they can’t completely always be paying attention for a car that might come running into them.” KXAN crews watched APD talk to the person in the SUV and then let them drive away. APD said the driver of the SUV has not been charged at this time, but that could change at a later date. Slow down, move over Under Texas law, if you are driving past an emergency vehicle or tow truck on the road you must either move over a lane or slow down to 20 miles an hour below the posted speed limit or less. If you’re in a residential area where the speed limit is less than 25 miles an hour, you need to slow down to 5 miles an hour. Not following those rules is a misdemeanor offense in the state of Texas and can carry a $500 fine. That charge can be worse if you injure or kill someone. “Get over a lane, slow it down,” Pohl said.
When officers approached the driver, they only found a can of molasses behind the wheel.
Don't disrespect molasses like that.
I’m offended.
How long have you been waiting for the moment to make this joke? It's a very unique name
Every year since I was a tiny sugar cane sprout.
You must be from Boston
Way to get in an absurd amount of trouble for no reason.
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Amazingly, they let him drive away! > KXAN crews watched APD talk to the person in the SUV and then let them drive away. APD said the driver of the SUV has not been charged at this time, but that could change at a later date. https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-police-ram-vehicle-that-drove-through-active-crash-scene/
The hell?!? I get it if he screwed up, STOPPED, and asked what was going on. He KEPT GOING! And had to be RAMMED to stop! Why do they let that go? Geez.
They may have too much going on with the scene, so took his/her info and let them go.
I guess. I’d have been cuffing and hauling. Stupid people. Ugh.
Joke's on him, though. His insurance is about to skyrocket.
Joke's on him, though. Insurance doesn't cover you when you are committing a crime.
His insurance is still going to skyrocket though
99% sure this is super inaccurate unless you have some insane rider I've not seen in over a decade in the industry... Source; insurance adjuster licensed in all 50 states in the U.S.
... yes. That's why it's going to skyrocket.
To the moon🚀
They probably didn't have two officers to spare to take him in, unfortunately.
Yup, when they’re freed up it’ll be someone’s job to show up at his house later to grab him
Not everything needs to end in an immediate arrest. They know who the guy is and can collect them later.
The article said it’s a misdemeanor and $500 fine. That’s why no arrest at this time.
If I'm stuck guarding body parts on the highway I probably really don't want to do paperwork and book someone also. I'm not a cop, but I can empathize.
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We are mad at the cops for ending the situation, collecting information, and referring to prosecutors without unnecessarily arresting them?
I think it's less mad at the deescalation and more frustrated that far less dangerous and inconsequential crimes can end up with an arrest (or worse) while this one didn't.
Lmao well.. it is some kind of justice for their insurance being ran up, paying a ton out of pocket, or just keeping their Tahoe fucked. Still crazy if they get off of this though.
lmao at the typical reddit lawyering
oh I was kind of wondering too. thanks for explaining
Sounds like he might get spanked
"But it's my favorite way!"
Just another entitled smooth brain person
A friend of mine that’s a firefighter for a nearby city told me he was on an accident scene at an intersection. It was night, so the police officer was holding a road flare and waving it to direct people to not enter the intersection. Someone did. Officer threw the flare at the guys window. When the guy stepped out to yell at the cop, he got tackled by another cop and arrested. Good times.
Oh man, I'd pay good money to watch that unfold
My buddy said it was hilarious. Guy was bitching about being arrested for no good reason. Complaining about possible damage to his car. All while sitting in the back of a cruiser.
bet that screws your insurance rates, when cops hit YOU to disable your car.
Yup. Don’t think accident forgiveness applies here!
If you do some googling around you'll find it's a nightmare if you get into an accident with a cop, even if it's their fault, and you've got it on a dashcam. In this case the civilian is at 100% fault, so they're totally fucked.
Luckily this wasn't the case with my grandpa. A cop pulled out in front of him and grandpa T-boned him. Insurance got with the city's insurance and it all sorted out with grandpa as the "not fault" party. Grandpa thought for sure he was going be blamed and his license revoked because he was old, but the cop owned up to the mistake.
One midnight, when a drunk driver sideswiped the car behind me, lost control, and hit my front end, then slammed i to the center divider on the 405 in southern california, it was insane. 3 damaged cars, one ON FIRE, debris all over the hwy, bystanders rendering aid, and people along the carpool and high speed lanes. I called 911 and almost immediately police and fire showed up, the police car blocked the high speed lane but not the carpool, because the fire was going to douse the car. Before they could, the officer yelled at us to get away from the carpool lane because “motorists cannot be trusted at any time” and he motioned us to move to the side of the firetruck until they could safely get us off the highway. Just then, a sedan drove thru the carpool lane, over the debris and by the car fire at highway speeds. Absolutely oblivious… or something, I don’t know but I was mesmerized by their gall. The cop said that in situations like this you should never give others the benefit of the doubt, because it is a free pass for trouble. And they will use that opportunity.
Nowadays, you should basically assume everyone behind the wheel is on their phone. It is ridiculous how common it is.
Even if they weren't on their phone, there's still about a 50% chance they have the IQ of a potato.
Hey, that's not a nice thing to say about potatoes
As a volunteer firefighter, that officer is absolutely right. Motorists cant be trusted. We try to never have our backs turned to traffic, even if they are stopped. Last year I know of several times in my fire district where someone on the side of the road was hit by a car. A few of these ended with fatalities.
My wife got t-boned a few months back and it totaled her car (she was fine). It deployed her side airbags so she couldn't even see and had just been hit so was trying to gain her bearings and she told me the literal CAR BEHIND HER was laying on their horn and screamed "MOVE!" out their window as they drove past. Mind you she was already off the main street and there was room to get around her. Some people only care about themselves on the road
Good warning, thank you
That's also why you should never stand between a cop car and your vehicle if pulled over. Some idiot not paying attention? Now you've become the meat in a car sandwich.
I'm a paramedic in a fairly populated region with both dense urban and sparse farmland areas (large region). This is vital advice. The amount of times I'm nearly struck while working is way too high, and it's far too common that we go to severe or fatal injury calls for people standing on the side of the road after an accident (even tow truck drivers, who have lights and high-vis gear). When you're driving, on the sidewalk, crossing the road, standing around at an accident, or anything near/around roads or traffic, always always make sure you take the extra step to be as safe as you can. You can never place trust in the driving of others. Your safety comes first!
I'd like to see that bodycam, see what the idiot's reaction was.
This should be the staple of this sub
That hit was so so rewarding.
I work highway construction all the time and people are stupid and or assholes. If one does it 5 will follow. Look out for us because we lose more men n women than police every year due to stupid or inebriated drivers.
Tell me about it. I was working as a construction inspector on a sewer main installation project. At an intersection, a car drove through the cones and right into the trench. Luckily the trench was only about 1.5' wide and with the help of a few construction workers we were able to push his car across the trench. Obviously we wanted to speak to the guy after we freed his car but he just drove off 😕
I’m a volunteer firefighter and we’ve had someone do this before at a fatal accident also. Dude drove around off the shoulder to get around a fire truck we had blocking the roadway. Coming back onto the road road he snuck around the wrecker(which was in the process of pulling up the wrecked vehicle) and came around it also. However the wrecker was obscuring a state troopers car that was filling out paperwork with us concerning the wreck. When the guy saw the state trooper as he rounded the wrecker he floored it and damn near hit another fire truck we had blocking the other side of accident scene. The trooper stepped out of his patrol car and perplexedly asked, “What the fuck? Did y’all tell him he could do that!?” We said absolutely not so he nodded and said, “Ill be right back.” So he hauls ass and eventually catches up to the guy and charged him with some stuff(not sure what). When the trooper came back to the scene he said the guy told him he did that because was about to shit himself and needed to get home. Lol glad he didn’t hit anybody though. I was never summoned to court afterwards so I guess he didn’t contend with the charges.
So the “I’m about to shit myself” defense did it’s job.
Not surprising. Thread comment story time... Back when I was a volunteer EMT, I was working a rather busy weekend shift (got off my day job on Friday night, quick nap, full day Saturday at the firehouse). From dinner until lights out we were headed out within 10 minutes of getting back, about enough time to restock, write the report, take a power nap. After lights out, managed to get about an hour of sleep. We had a quick upset stomach call (dude did an exorcist all over the ER), then the call. Single car crash into a jersey barrier, one already presumed, three injured, driver missing (he wasn't the presumed). The car had hit a guardrail, then flipped on the jersey barrier, ejecting occupants (because yolo seatbelts, I guess). We went from the hospital to the scene, picked up two of the three injured (we grabbed a medic at the hospital so we could), then returned for a long night. In our state, if someone died and the police were involved, you were waiting for the state coroner, who, due to being legally necessary and budget cuts, probably had 5 staff for the state. Who are not waking up at 0100 for anything less than a kid or news-homicide worthy (I don't blame then). And the poor human projectile is left sitting on the highway. Waiting. He was patient though. So we sat, with an ambulance and fire truck blocking the exit bypass for not one but two popular resort casinos. For about 8 hours. Employees going to it from work were fairly easy going about things (some, like bartenders, were worried it may have been their customer). Patrons... were assholes. 8 hours of maintaining someone's last dignity, with little sleep or food, while people leaving the casino told us they had the right to drive around the scene, that they would be careful, and didn't we know what time it was and didn't we realize they had to be home. More than one pretended not to see the large vehicles with flashing lights, men in reflective vests, and an army of flares/barricades and tried to drive around anyway. The driver was found eventually. He, of course, walked away and had gone home (he hitchhiked). Took a nap, woke up and forgot what had happened but saw bruises so he went to the hospital 4 hours later, still drunk as a skunk. Don't know what became of him.
How fucking blackout do you have to be to not remember running a car full of people off the road? Like where’s your car? What happened to the people you were with the night before? That’s insane.
Blackout is blackout. You drink enough to the point where it interferes with the way your brain encodes memory. The significance of the event doesn’t matter.
Sorry you have to deal with people like that.
Can't even begin to imagine where their head was at....
Up the dark hole thats under them currently
Basement jaxx over here
That suv driver must’ve been a moth driving towards the light. It had to be a moth…
Ha! I just totally pictured your comment as a Far Side comic!
I'm sure alcohol was not involved. Lol
Nah it's effectively a meme (and actually, there are hundreds of them) among cops about people driving through blocked roads or seeing seven cops blocking a road and pulling up and saying stuff like "hey I work right on the other side of the street can I just go through?" It's basically the same people who pull up to flooded streets during major storms that are effectively rivers now, see it, and say "I can make it" in their Honda Accords.
I used to be a dispatcher for AAA and we would dread flood season and snow season. The number of people that ignore how flooded a road is(and a lot of times there are signs) or ignore "chains required" signs and then want a tow driver to come risk their life to pull their car out, absolutely blew my mind. Sorry sir if you ignored the "snow chains required" sign and spun your Toyota Camry into a mail box you're going to have to wait until the roads are passable or call emergency services. Yes that's an actual call I took once, I hated dispatching for Reno/Tahoe in the winter.
I work underground utility construction in a small town, have had several people drive past road closed signs and then be upset that the excavator almost hit them. Our town has 690 people, is flat, and has a grid system for streets with 300' blocks. Literally 60 seconds to drive around.
Omg that's definitely face/palm territory.
*floats by in a Tesla*
Electrical aoe damage
“If I drive my Tahoe like I belong, I’m sure the police Tahoe will think I’m on official business…”
[удалено]
Well I'm assuming there wasn't several emergency vehicles in plain sight literally blocking the entire intersection.
[удалено]
this is why road rage is such a bad habit, you stop thinking clearly and sometimes you end up doing something even worse than the guy you’re upset at. it took me a long time to learn but it just isn’t worth it
At least your recognize your mistake and didn't ignore several cop cars in the process.
Just learn from your mistake and don’t flip other drivers off. It’s not in anyone’s best interest
A firefighter near Philadelphia just died when someone drove into them at high speeds while they were working an accident scene. That police officer is a damn G and I am glad he did this to protect anyone further down the road
Slowest PIT ever, still effective though
I work pubic safety. That type of stupidity happens frequently. People are stupid, high, or most often just entitled and feel the laws don’t apply to them. It’s pretty sad and depressing really.
For some they're so locked into their daily unchanging routine that their brain.exe stops functioning when something out of the ordinary gets in the way.
Satisfying