Those who warn you of cops ahead by flashing lights.

[J. Galt]

The point of speeding tickets is to get people to drive at what has been deemed a safe speed. A speeding ticket is not meant as a punishment, it is meant as a deterrent. Many departments will put units out in plain sight again as a deterrent. A person flashing lights at a speeder is no different than the decal on the patrol unit making the people slow down. Only the departments who give speeding tickets as a means of revenue will be upset by people slowing down before being issued a ticket.

+1

I appreciate folks warning me of a speed trap or other dangers ahead, it never occured to me that it was a bad thing.

 

[m1gunner]

I routinely flash oncoming traffic for any unexpected opstruction to traffic that is on or over the white line. Will flash for a police car just as quicly as for a wrecker or ambulance.

Ga has a "move over" law that requires a lane change or speed reduction anytime there is an emergency vehicle (not just cop cars) on the side of the road, and now also covers road workers as well.

Sometimes even going the speed limit is too fast if something bad awaits you around the curve.

If there is a radar trap well hidden, and not likely to cause panic actions by drivers, I don't bother with the lights, as that isn't a clear danger in my eyes to the motorists.

Drive as forward escort for a 16' wide load operation for a couple of years, and all sorts of stuff jumps out at you as dangerous to the travelling public.

 

[44wheelman]

Well there's two types of speeding tickets. The revenue generating kind where the cops hide waiting to bust you where the speed limit takes quick drop or is just ridiculously low, and the kind where the cop is sitting in the interstate median in plain view and you drive recklessly past him. I want the idiots pulled over in the later case, but would warn (flash lights) in the first.
Honestly, some people need to be given tickets.

 

[dsoza2003]

For the Record I am the LA County BD rep for teh biggest ambulance provider in the nation. I spend 90% of my time with my medic crews, In ER's and at hospitals so I do see trauma all day long. If someone is driving reckless sure pull em over and give them a ticket..We are talking about other type...The cop sitting behind a bush on the blvd. and pulling over everyone going 45 in a 35 zone becuase he needs to hit his quota......Do we really need someone doing that??? Waste of law enforcement..Thats why I say dedicate some less trained taffic cops and pay them 10 bucks to do that job...Take the guys that are trained and making 60+k a year out there dealing with CRIMINALS!!! period.

 

[buckeyeshooter]

If you live in an area like I do, where the neighboring village will write you a ticket for 2 mph over the speed limit or for having a tire touch the line at the edge of the road. You might be more appreciative of the warning.

 

[sparkgap]

Back in the days when most drivers had a CB radio, a local HP Officer when starting out on Hi way 67 would always report a Smokey going in the direction he was going. Just to get the speeders to slow down. He was old school and went by the handle of papa bear.

Bob

 

[perpster]

I have heard that in some parts of the country flashing headlights is some sort of gang challenge, and that people have been assaulted or worse after flashing the wrong person(s). Don't know how true it is, but IIRC the story I heard happened in rural Florida.

 

[CelticSire]

Originally posted by dsoza2003:
For the Record I am the LA County BD rep for teh biggest ambulance provider in the nation. I spend 90% of my time with my medic crews, In ER's and at hospitals so I do see trauma all day long. If someone is driving reckless sure pull em over and give them a ticket..We are talking about other type...The cop sitting behind a bush on the blvd. and pulling over everyone going 45 in a 35 zone becuase he needs to hit his quota......Do we really need someone doing that??? Waste of law enforcement..Thats why I say dedicate some less trained taffic cops and pay them 10 bucks to do that job...Take the guys that are trained and making 60+k a year out there dealing with CRIMINALS!!! period.

For your information, most "traffic cops" training level far exceeds that of homicide detectives. I have over 600 hours of classroom training in Accident Investigation and Reconstruction. You know how much I got for Homicide Investigation? 40 hours.

At 45 MPH, you are traveling approx. 66 feet per second. Given a standard reaction time of 1.5 seconds (best case scenario, not on a cell phone, not talking to a passenger, not distracted by the sun in your eyes, etc.) that's 99 feet in the time it takes you to realize that you need to stop and start to move your foot from the gas to the brake. Add in the stopping distance based on the road surface and you're looking at anywhere from 200 to 300 feet on average, more if you factor in adverse weather, alcohol, etc.. Now, your standard passenger car traveling at that speed has enough kinetic energy to knock a one pound object over 16 miles – and a 5 year old kid chasing a ball into the street just darted out from between two cars 150 feet up the road. See, 5 year olds' brains haven't developed cognitively to the point where they can interpret the fact that an object getting larger in their field of vision means it's getting closer. That doesn't happen until around age 8 or 9. So, yeah, they'll run right out because they simply cannot understand the danger. But you keep right on driving 45 in a 35, and I'll keep writing tickets for it. Not because of "quotas", which are illegal by the way, but because I get tired of hearing drivers at fatality scenes say "I didn't see him until it was too late."

 

[InolaOK]

"Probable Cause" on a traffic stop? Did someone change the law while I snoozed? Shut me down and issue a summons for flashing my lights? I'll call B.S. on this one. Former LEO and a firm supporter of our LEO system but do this to me and I'll see you in civil court after I beat you in traffic court.

 

[S/W - Lifer]

I think the folks flashing their lights are just helping the enforcement process. The guys writing the tickets are there to get people to slow down. When a driver flashes their lights, people slow down. It's win-win and no harm done. Flash away and stay safe.

 

[nicky4968]

The motor cops I know all deny having a quota. As they put it, "I can't stop writing tickets just because I reach a certain number".
I've had to deal with the aftermath of highway tragedies, too, but not first-hand like CelticSire. Anything to slow people down is fine with me.

 

[Capt Steve]

CelticSire: Plus 10!
I have witnessed two children hit by cars. One by an elderly gentleman who never had a chance to stop in time. He was doing about 15 MPH. He stopped immediately and was inconsolable despite it not being his fault. The second, a real POS, was doing 35- 40 in a 25 and never even touched the brakes. An off duty LEO and I went in pursuit hoping to catch him, or at least get his plate by heading for the nearby freeway. He was too far gone but then we weren't willing to drive like he was. They never caught him but the little boy survived.

 

[Gov]

Interesting that no one has yet commented on using "Twitter" to issue warnings. For the benefit of the audience, Twitter is a streaming log of short comments sent by users to a common posting board. Some folks in SE Washington State have set up a "Twitter board" for alerting drivers to speed traps (I'd assume folks are watching their cell phones for tweets rather than driving, but that's an aside). One local officer responded by officially saying that he would post his location to the board just to get people to slow down... "That's the whole point".

I personally flash my lights, not because I want to let folks speed, but because I see it as helping slow people down.

 

[jonnyringo]

I am pro warning. We don't need more regulation and laws. We do need more gang bangers and real criminlas put away. Speeding tickets here in Ohio are revenue and there are many speed traps in rural areas where it is no more than tax collecting IMHO.

 

[Capt Steve]

Interesting that no one has yet commented on using "Twitter" to issue warnings.

That's all we need, more people looking at their cellphones while driving. Studies have shown that someone using a cellphone while driving has the same motor skills as a .16 DUI - that is twice the legal limit in most jurisdictions. Please folks, put the cell phones down. Nothing you have to say is worth someones life!

 

[Andy Taylor]

CelticSire Very well put.
Traffic enforcment is a lot more than "see speeder-write ticket"
BTW many years a go my mother was the driver who hit the little boy (IIRC about 4 years old)who ran out between the cars. Fortunately he lived, only got a broken arm and some bumps and bruises. Mom had seen the other kids running around in the yard and had slowed to 15mph. This was a 25mph zone. Mom was still pale white when she got home a few hours later. I was about 12 at the time.

 

[Gov]

Originally posted by Capt Steve:

Interesting that no one has yet commented on using "Twitter" to issue warnings.

That's all we need, more people looking at their cellphones while driving. Studies have shown that someone using a cellphone while driving has the same motor skills as a .16 DUI - that is twice the legal limit in most jurisdictions. Please folks, put the cell phones down. Nothing you have to say is worth someones life!

I agree completely.... just wanted to throw in some commentary on how technology is bringing this debate into the public sphere again. There were a couple of news stories in WA and OR about this new method of "cop blocking" -- pun intended.

 

[truckemup97]

Originally posted by Honest Effort:
"Probable Cause" on a traffic stop?

Don't become a truck driver. They claim they don't need probable cause to pull us over for random roadside inspections. However, they do occasionally give lame excuses, like "Your mudflaps were sailing too far up" or "Did I see you come off that one lane dirt road back there?"

 

[medic15al]

Originally posted by Wheelgunner840:

Originally posted by morsecode:
Twenty five years ago my wife got a ticket for doing that on the interstate. Her ticket ended up costing more than the one handed out to speeders. Maybe the law has changed since then?

Exactly what law is being broken when signaling a driver to slow down? I do it all the time, and I appreciate when someone warns me. The speed traps around here are usually set up in 25 MPH zones. It is very easy to be traveling at 35 MPH and not even realize it. It's not like a bunch of people are cruising the secondary roads around here doing 50.

It's a money making deal for the towns, and I don't have a problem giving people who are just going about their business a little help in keeping their money. No offense meant to the LEOs here.

This should be an interesting thread.

WG840

The infraction here is "improper use of headlights" I beleive.

 

[Faulkner]

Originally posted by dlstewart01:
From The Tennessean:

Police to stop citing drivers who flash lights

By MITCHELL KLINE
Staff Writer

''It's my constitutional right to blink my lights, and the city of Franklin overturned that right,'' Walker said. .

I kinda support the old fella, but what people read into the constitution always amazes me.