…last night, driving home from Girlfriend’s sister’s house, with Girlfriend and Rupert the Wonder Beagle. I saw that a cop was about half a block behind me, so I decided to stop at a traffic light (rather than blowing the yellow as I am wont to do). I glanced back, and saw that the cop did not appear to be slowing down - shit, he’s not going to stop! Since nobody else was at the intersection, I was able hit the gas and pull over to the next lane because impact.
The officer (who looked barely old enough to vote, let alone be a policeman) did stop and call over to my car, profusely apologizing and saying he was glancing down at his computer and didn’t see the light go red. Being a generous sort, I forgave his error. At the next intersection, though, he turned off onto a side street, apparently embarrassed to share the road with a guy he’d almost smashed.
I was rear ended by a city bus once (sounds horrible, but it was at a stoplight, and he was stopping, just not fast enough) and my first thought was “well, at least he’s got insurance!”
But I just might be a dork to think that right off the bat.
Those onboard computers are pretty dangerous, spanish traffic cops yelled quite loudly until they got a way of mounting them on the dashboard which didn’t imply taking your eyes off the road for several seconds to see them and didn’t block the windshield either.
Mr. S and I once just missed seeing a woman rear-end a cop car. We came up on the scene just as the cop was getting out of his car. Oh, and it was late afternoon on Christmas Eve.
(She probably got off easy; it was obviously a slow-speed impact and the streets were VERY icy that day. But still, that poor woman!)
When I was much younger I was rear ended by a police motorcycle who had been rear ended by a police car who had been rear ended by a drunk driver. The guy hit the police car hard enough to push the police car (which was in park with an officer pressing on the brakes with lights flashing) 10-15 feet into the bike (parked also with lights flashing) and propel it into my car while the motorcycle officer and I ran. I called my dad to tell him what happened and that I would be late, he didn’t believe me till the officer got on the line and explained.
My friend was driving through an unfamiliar Chicago neighborhood last spring, and ventured the wrong way down a one-way street. A cop noticed her blunder and followed her. However, she didn’t notice the cop.
When she realized she was going the wrong way, she quickly popped it in reverse, and plowed right into the cop car.
She’s an attractive lass, who likes wearing skirts. I also think she burst into tears upon impact. Needless to say she didn’t get a ticket.
Had that been me, there would’ve been guns drawn, and much yelling in my direction.
Similar thing happened to a friend-of-a-friend - he was in an unfamiliar part of town and accidently turned the wrong way down a one way street, and immediately hit a parked police car. (There was no damage, and the cops were in the middle of a raid so they let him go with a warning.)
Something similar happened to a friend of my sister when she was in her late teens. Snowy day, driving slowly, couldn’t quite stop in time on the icy road, bumped the rear bumper of a cop car. Cop gets out of the car, takes a couple steps, slips and falls on his ass. Sis’ friend and another gal in the car are trying their best not to laugh for fear of what the cop will do. Apparently he just assessed the situation, saw no damage, and IIRC just told them to drive carefully as it was certainly slippery out.
I was almost rear-ended by a “civilian” car when I stopped for a yellow light a couple of months ago. The lane to the right of us was empty, so he ended up swerving around me to avoid hitting me. It scared me to death, and now I’m VERY worried about stopping at yellow lights if there are any cars behind me.
I really wish that ALL drivers–cops or otherwise–realized that yellow means STOP, especially if you are still a safe stopping distance away from the intersection when the light changes.
One of Mr. Kiminy’s favorite movies is Starman, in which a visiting alien knows that green means “go”, red means “stop”, and yellow means “go VERY VERY fast”, based on his experiences riding with an Earthling woman.
I was in a cop car (in the front seat, small town, my car broke down, he was taking me home) in the winter on glare ice when his radio mumbled something. He slammed on the brakes doing a 180 in the middle of the street flying off to ??? All he said was “You aught fasten yo’ seat belt, lil’ lady”
He suddenly turned into a driveway, at 35, it was downhill toward the house, with several cars in the driveway. Sure enough blonk into …The Chief of Police’s car.
Seems Chief’s mama had died and the funeral was that day, the family was all still at Chief’s house, and gramma got a little whoosy. We got there before the medics, Gramma was locked in the bathroom. I was able to talk her into letting me in. She was a little drunk from a couple glasses of wine.
When the medics got there, I took her blood pressure and got her moving. All was well and I was a hero.
So, I wanted to go get some sleep since I’d gotten off at 11:00pm and it was now 2:30am.
But the Chief tells me he’s gonna need a statement Yeah the little joy ride.
I didn’t want to get the kid in trouble, so I lied thru my teeth. I know the Chief didn’t believe a word of it, but since I’d “save gramma’s live” he let it go. I had a friend forever in that little town
I did some time as a cop in the reserve force, our favorite prank was to glide up behind an early morning cyclist and whisper over the PA, “Good morning, sir.”
Yeah the little joy ride.
