Okay, this was a different experience. On the way to work on the highway, a pack of three trucks with signs facing backward, reading “Do Not Pass” merged on and drove back and forth between lanes, keeping all cars behind them. They had sirens. We moved slowly, then stopped for maybe a couple of minutes, then the trucks started moving again and merged off onto the frontage road and were gone. It looked like they were turning off into the parking lot of some business.
WTF? There hadn’t seemed to be a crash. All I can think of is maybe there was a dangerous suspect loose somewhere maybe? I can’t find anything on local news. That was a new one after all the shenanigans I’ve seen on this route to work.
I once encountered something like this on a bridge. When I reached the toll booth I was told it was some sort of safety inspection they did a few times a day.
This was shortly after 9/11 and I haven’t seen it since. It slowed down all the traffic and apparently a lot of people complained about it.
Motorcade or debris are my top guesses. I don’t think non-LEO assets are ordinarily used for in-progress roadway emergencies. There wouldn’t be time for coordinating.
The Do Not Pass and choreography also reminds me of salt and plow trucks during snowy weather. However, I’ve never heard of them ‘practicing.’
It was hard to tell because I was several cars back, and it was still dark. They were all the same size and shape, and they had sirens. They kind of looked like city utility trucks, but any markings I couldn’t see.
There’s almost never any snow here. Still nothing on the local news. It was just a little scary not to know if it was just some mundane thing or something serious or what.
I saw something like this once. A little further up the highway was a construction site and a large dump truck was being loaded. I’m pretty sure that the “do not pass” trucks were creating a break in traffic for the dump truck to get into position. In terms of the traffic flow, it’s probably less disruptive to slow things down for a few miles than to bring everything to a stop, even for a few seconds.
That’s a good possibility and would explain why there were no news reports. There has been road construction going on for years along this highway (and everywhere else in town).
Did they have any markings on them, reflective paint, yellow or orange in color?
Sirens or lights? Sirens usually are directed forward not behind, & sirens w/o emergency lights make it hard to pick out which vehicle it’s coming from. Also, sirens are limited use, depending upon state law, construx vehicles may not be able to legally use them.
This sounds like construx, maybe placing/moving Jersey barriers or something else that would be potentially dangerous to drive under/near until it was secured
Just a guess:
Could they have been providing protection for a vehicle carrying hazardous material? (maybe following the vehicle at a certain distance, to prevent others from getting too close?)
They did have red or orange striping on a background of yellow reflective paint, kind of above the back wheels. And they had blinking lights, I think yellow and blue, and also were making siren noises. The sirens were what made it seem like there was some kind of emergency. Or maybe there was an ambulance up further ahead that was making the noise?
I didn’t see any other vehicles entering or exiting the highway with them, but it’s possible. I’m probably remembering some of this incorrectly.
But the “do not pass” signs were definitely the electronic kind and aimed back at cars behind them. Like, they were definitely trying to prevent anyone driving past them for whatever mysterious reason.
I’ve been involved in a couple of traffic break manuevers over the years, and both times it was just a CHP motorcycle guy running the break. Very skilled and ballsy.
My wife and I comment that only people from California are familiar with the term “traffic break”. I gotta ask, if I tell you I got caught in a SIG Alert this morning, does that mean anything to you?
I’ve been behind a CHiP traffic break or two, but it’s was patrol cars, not motorcycles. The only Sig-alerts I used to hear about were somewhere in the Bay Area far away from where I was, usually somewhere outside the local south bay station’s normal reporting area.
This happened to us a few months ago while we were driving north up 101 on the Oregon coast. We were quite close to the trucks, and there was a long, long lineup of cars behind us. We finally figured out what they were doing: they were repainting the white line that’s on the right-hand side of the right lane, the one that designates the edge of the road or maybe the bike shoulder. The paint must have been quick-drying, I suppose. At any rate, they eventually all pulled off to the left at a scenic overlook and let the half-mile of backed up traffic get by.
Absolutely! I’ve been caught in a few myself. I haven’t heard the term in ages, though, because I’ve been retired for a while and try to avoid as much bad traffic as I can.
ETA: It’s funny how terms that are so “normal” to one’s ears you don’t even think about them, but they can be indecipherable to others.
I was in a job interview in Denver and I referred to “The” 25. The interviewer jokingly (I thought) said, “You shouldn’t say The 25. You sound like you’re from LA.” Ooooookay. My resume says I taught in LAUSD. Did you even read it? Later I again unconsciously said “The 25” and he stared at me and said, “Seriously! Stop saying The 25!”