# Do fire department captains report unruly drivers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 19, 2015, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284 "2015-08-19T20:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/21 "2015-08-20T19:48:02Z")
Your second question. I will not condone passengers who do such things in my car. And if she did that in HER car, I would get out at the first opportunity and take the bus to get home. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/22 "2015-08-20T20:09:10Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Your second question. I will not condone passengers who do such things in my car. And if she did that in HER car, I would get out at the first opportunity and take the bus to get home. yet she was driving - “some kind of jeep” - so where does your car come into play here? and did you, in fact, get out and start walking? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/23 "2015-08-20T20:53:45Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > (What I’m asking is, if I see a fire truck - not on an emergency call - and I’m speeding, do I need to slow down?) No, of course not. An emergency vehicle without its lights going is just another vehicle on the road. (Now, if it was a cop car without its lights going, that may be a good way to get the cop to turn on the lights. 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/24 "2015-08-20T21:46:28Z")
Answering only for my state a fire captain or whatever rank has no powers of arrest or to ticket. Just like any citizen they can sign a complaint. They had better be able to ID the driver. If a fire fighter told me about I violation I could not write a ticket because I did not witness it. Passing school bus tickets are totally different. In the MV code it is one of only a few violations where there is a legal assumption making the registered owner the driver. Bus drivers still have to sign the ticket themselves since they are the one who saw it but there is no need to ID the driver. It automatically gets written to the owner. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/25 "2015-08-20T21:55:21Z")
> [@simster](#): > > yet she was driving - “some kind of jeep” - so where does your car come into play here? and did you, in fact, get out and start walking? This all depends on who was driving. If it were my car, I would have her put out. If she were driving, I would get out when I could. It never got to that point, however. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/26 "2015-08-20T23:46:30Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > This all depends on who was driving. If it were my car, I would have her put out. If she were driving, I would get out when I could. It never got to that point, however. so - you’re still in the car? or she didn’t do what you’re saying she did? or you’re not sure what happened, but you want to weave a tale of that time when you were with that girl and that thing happpened? FTR - you had just said - she was driving her “jeep like thing” - and that you would get out as soon as possible (one assumes next stop sign/light) if they acted that way - yet - now you’re saying she did, and you didn’t - or your just babbling about. In the first post - you said you’d put her out of her own car (that she was driving). ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/27 "2015-08-21T00:49:46Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Passing school bus tickets are totally different. In the MV code it is one of only a few violations where there is a legal assumption making the registered owner the driver. Bus drivers still have to sign the ticket themselves since they are the one who saw it but there is no need to ID the driver. It automatically gets written to the owner. Does this go on the owner’s driving record then? Points? ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/28 "2015-08-21T01:34:54Z")
A few times a year our emergency services vehicles call in a report of another driver acting recklessly or refusing to yield. It is usually an ambulance driver making the report. With some frequency it is a family member of the patient they are transporting that is tailgating the ambulance. Our police won’t write the ticket without observing the offense themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/29 "2015-08-21T02:31:40Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Does this go on the owner’s driving record then? Points? Yes. Lots. 5 in fact. It’s just about the worst moving violation you can be cited for. The exact wording: “There shall be a rebuttable presumption that the registered owner of the vehicle which was involved in the violation of this section was the person who committed the act.” ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/30 "2015-08-21T02:47:26Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > she was behind the wheel, and I heard a siren–a fire engine was approaching from behind, to our left. Sheila ignored it even though we were almost directly ahead of the vehicle. They pulled around, to the left; the captain, in the right front seat, made some kind of warning gesture to Sheila. People should realize that a typical fire engine weighs like 20 tons. If anyone screws up and you collide, the fire engine wins…EVERY TIME. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/31 "2015-08-21T05:14:54Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Yes. Lots. 5 in fact. It’s just about the worst moving violation you can be cited for. > > The exact wording: > “There shall be a rebuttable presumption that the registered owner of the vehicle which was involved in the violation of this section was the person who committed the act.” A fellow I know has a security business in a rural area and has been trying to put cameras and recorders on school busses. Apparently it’s amazing how may drivers blow by red-light-flashing school busses. He set up a few with the help of the local school board. However, when he took his video to the police, they couldn’t do anything because the law was to ticket the driver; unless the driver could be identified from the video, there was nobody to ticket. It doesn’t fall on the owner AFAIK in most Canadian jurisdictions. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284/32 "2015-08-21T05:27:24Z")
> [@simster](#): > > so - you’re still in the car? or she didn’t do what you’re saying she did? or you’re not sure what happened, but you want to weave a tale of that time when you were with that girl and that thing happpened? > > FTR - you had just said - she was driving her “jeep like thing” - and that you would get out as soon as possible (one assumes next stop sign/light) if they acted that way - yet - now you’re saying she did, and you didn’t - or your just babbling about. In the first post - you said you’d put her out of her own car (that she was driving). :Sigh: :rolleyes: I think I ought to restate this to make it clearer… 1. If she is driving (her car) and I am a passenger, and she flips someone off, I would seek an opportunity to get out of the car and take the bus home. 2. If\* I\* am driving _(my_ car) and _she_ is a passenger, and she does that, I would promptly order her out of the car, in no uncertain terms. I would _never_ order her out of her own car. _(Reductio ad absurdum:_ Her car was a stick shift and I never learned how to drive one. I would _never_ let her behind the wheel of my car.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fire-department-captains-report-unruly-drivers/728284.md?page=1)