# How do police officers safely pull over "wrong-way" drivers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-officers-safely-pull-over-wrong-way-drivers/946656 "2021-07-16T17:55:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-officers-safely-pull-over-wrong-way-drivers/946656/21 "2021-07-18T03:05:01Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But as soon as I saw the first few cars coming at me, I would realize the extremely dangerous situation I was in and I would pull over to the side. A CHP officer in San Diego explained to me that he considered the after midnight hours on the long stretches of almost deserted freeways outside of the city as the most dangerous. An impaired driver manages to ignore the signs and gets onto the freeway by going up an off-ramp (in California the on ramp and off ramp of a freeway can be next to each other). The wrong way driver recognizes that something is wrong (for example, the reflective dots between lanes reflect red traveling the wrong way) and instinctively moves into the “slow” lane. Unfortunately, this is, of course, the fast lane, the one you’re likely to be traveling in if you’re the only car on the road. It’s a formula for a high speed head-on. His advice: If you have to travel those roads during those hours, avoid the fast lane and slow down a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-officers-safely-pull-over-wrong-way-drivers/946656/22 "2021-07-18T06:23:45Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > the reflective dots between lanes reflect red traveling the wrong way Never knew that. Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-officers-safely-pull-over-wrong-way-drivers/946656/23 "2021-07-18T12:07:41Z")
Me neither. Why isn’t it on the DMV test? This is clearly something that should be known by every driver? ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-officers-safely-pull-over-wrong-way-drivers/946656/24 "2021-07-18T14:28:08Z")
I was southbound at night on a rural Virginia four-lane highway back in the seventies (for those familiar: Rt.29 in Madison County) when a northbound car passed me in my passing lane. I don’t know if it was a confused person or kids playing chicken but it scared the living shit out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-officers-safely-pull-over-wrong-way-drivers/946656/25 "2021-07-18T15:58:59Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > I was southbound at night on a rural Virginia four-lane highway back in the seventies (for those familiar: Rt.29 in Madison County) when a northbound car passed me in my passing lane. I don’t know if it was a confused person or kids playing chicken but it scared the living shit out of me But when it happened three more times, you started to wonder. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-officers-safely-pull-over-wrong-way-drivers/946656/26 "2021-07-18T16:14:11Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I can’t imagine how anyone can be in this situation and decide that the best thing to do is keep driving on and hope it somehow works out. As pkbites noted, wrong-way drivers tend to be people who are suffering from some manner of cognitive impairment: they’re drunk or high, they’re elderly and suffering from cognitive issues, or they’re diabetic, and suffering from a blood sugar issue (typically hypoglycemia) that’s causing confusion. In such cases, it seems like they aren’t able to process that “cars are coming the wrong way” means that “_ **I** _ must be the one on that’s on the wrong side of the road.” ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-officers-safely-pull-over-wrong-way-drivers/946656/27 "2021-07-18T16:44:34Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > > > I was southbound at night on a rural Virginia four-lane highway back in the seventies (for those familiar: Rt.29 in Madison County) when a northbound car passed me in my passing lane. I don’t know if it was a confused person or kids playing chicken but it scared the living shit out of me > > But when it happened three more times, you started to wonder. Back in those days I had a low opinion of rural Virginia drivers in general. There’s a very good chance that the driver had simply made a dumb mistake. That highway was in dark countryside with very little traffic (at the time). I finally got the joke, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-officers-safely-pull-over-wrong-way-drivers/946656.md?page=1)