The 40-year-old star was in her white Mercedes-Benz as she blocked the third lane southbound on the 101 north of Balboa Blvd according to law enforcement
Police had received a call around 10pm and found Britney in the backseat of a passerby’s car when they arrived at the scene
Britney told the officers that she had ran out of gas while driving and her car stalled out in the middle of the highway
After California Highway Patrol stopped traffic on the freeway, a law enforcement officer got into the driver’s seat of Britney’s Mercedes-Benz
Britney sat in the passenger seat as vehicle proceeded to be pushed to safety
Law enforcement stayed alongside the celebrity until her new husband, Sam Asghari, arrived to pick her up
Unless there’s more to the story than what’s in this article, this sounds like a matter for AAA, and not for the police. Doesn’t sound like the police did much for her either (They did “stop traffic on the freeway” for some reason - possibly to push the car out of the way), but they “stayed alongside” her until her husband showed up.
Can people just call the police for non-police matters? Would they even show up? Or is this just a celebrity getting some perks that normal people couldn’t get?
I’ve called the police to report stalled cars in the road. In one instance the car was stalled in the right lane, near to an intersection - but not visible from the intersection (corner building blocking the view). Someone could have made a turn around the corner and, not reacting in time, plowed into the car.
I figured the police would rather block that lane with a visible police car at the corner - instead of having to report an accident.
When I do this - the police typically ask “what color is the car”?
Yeah, if you’re stopped in a travel lane with traffic whizzing by, AAA probably won’t/can’t help you, because they can’t stop traffic. Now why she didn’t pull over before the car stopped, like anyone with half a brain would, is a different question.
Funny you should mention that. I once had a car conk out because the wire on the electric fuel pump came loose. The engine went from running to not running in an instant. I can understand someone on a busy freeway not being able to move over from the third lane in time.
I know of a couple of cases of someone calling the police to help rescue a kitten trapped in a construction site/elevator shaft, and they came. I also know of cases of somebody calling about a cat and they didn’t come, also calling about police matters and they didn’t come (police have no obligation to stop a crime or to help you), also trying to wave down an actual patrol car and they didn’t stop.
The factual question is what is the official department policy, if any; beyond that it seems YMMV (what neighbourhood you live in and so on).
ETA if there is a major accident and traffic needs to be re-routed, the wreckage cleared, etc. they always come.
I’ve also had a car suddenly die on a highway; I called AAA first, but they immediately contacted the police. I couldn’t even get out of my car until they arrived; I just had to sit there with blinkers on surrounded by traffic.
Perhaps because of her infamous status she could have caused an unsafe situation on a busy freeway. People stopping to take pictures and stopping to talk to her and such.
Blocking any travel lane of a major freeway most certainly is a police matter. An emergency. Just to get it off the roadway. After that it becomes a AAA or Britany’s problem. But while it is in the roadway it is a major hazard that must be addressed quickly.
Could result in a major accident including loss off life, get it off the road and then it is her problem. Calling anyone else like a tow company or AAA will take a lot more time, a lot more, while the hazard remains.
Police have non-emergency phone numbers and will generally be fine with most calls going through there, if they are about something so frivolous it isn’t worth an officer’s time, the dispatcher might indicate that it isn’t a call they will respond on, but in any case a disabled vehicle in a high traffic freeway is actually a legitimate police matter.
Getting the car working again or whatever is more the problem of the owner, but the police will even get it towed if the owner doesn’t get something resolved with it in a reasonable span of time–for example if you are able to get a disabled car off on the shoulder of the interstate a lot of times a cop will “mark” the car the first time they register it, then if it’s still there a day or so later they will have it towed (the owner will have to pay all towing + storage fees to get it back.) They give you a little window assuming you absconded to go get help to tow / fix your disabled car, but they don’t let you use the shoulder of the road as a long term storage option.
When I was a teenager my car died on a highway. I would have called police but luckily a citizen on patrol came over, stopped traffic, and helped me push the car off the road. He did ask if I had someone coming to tow the car so I assume the police would tow it for me (at my expense) if I couldn’t.
Sure you can call AAA. You’ll probably be waiting over an hour in the middle of the highway. People call 911 for things they shouldn’t all the time. What was described in the OP is not one of those cases.
Perhaps traffic conditions did not allow her the ability to get to the side of the road, we do not know because we were not there. And its pretty much a fact that she draws lots of attention and gets followed around by the paparazzi, so she is more of a hazard than most people either on the road or on the side.
I don’t think she gets followed by paparazzi nearly as much as in her heyday 15-20 years ago. And it was 10 PM on a Tuesday night - I haven’t driven in LA for a few years, but I don’t remember Tuesday nights being that busy. And regardless, as I said before, a Mercedes has to have plenty of “LOW FUEL” warnings that she’d been ignoring for miles.
Googling, California has the Freeway Service Patrol with tow trucks to help people out in circumstances like this. I was with my brother and other family once on our way back from New Jersey when we had a flat on the Tappan Zee Bridge (and this was at about 2am). The similar service tow truck stopped to see if we needed assistance.
The idea, I think, is that traffic flows more smoothly if a disabled car can be assisted, so it’s worth the small amount the service costs.
If she didn’t call 911 then it’s fine. You are supposed to be able to call the police for any kind of assistance, and they should take reasonable steps to help you. If it’s not an emergency then you have time to find a non-emergency number for the police.
Really? She makes international news for running out of gas on a freeway and you don’t think she is getting too much attention from the paparazzi? You do know she has been in the news quite a bit in the pass year don’t you? The issue with her parents and her just getting married has drawn mountains of press. If it was anyone else would it have made the news and would we even be talking about it? She did a dumb thing and ran out of gas, so what? I believe she was justified in calling the police for assistances, that’s all.
People are taking too much interest in her life and this just proves her point that the press is out to get something on her to talk about and generate clicks.
I also believe she was justified in calling the police. My only comment was that it’s ridiculous that she ran out of gas in a travel lane.
And I don’t believe the paparazzi were following her at the time - the TMZ article the Daily Mail sourced said they got it from police sources, and the pictures of her in both articles clearly state they’re older pictures of her. There’d be a ton of pictures of the incident if the paparazzi had actually shown up.
ETA: And to be clear, I’m not singling her out. I think it’s ridiculous for anyone to run out of gas in a travel lane on a freeway, doubly so if they’ve got a car that flashes “LOW FUEL” repeatedly as you’re driving.