Perfect Timing

[catcul]

One time, when I was coming home from work, I had a guy in a Mustang pass me like I was standing still. I thought to myself, "Where's a cop when you need one?"

Sure enough, a police cruiser suddenly appeared coming the other way. Despite his best efforts, Mr. Mustang got pulled over.

[otter]

That's awesome! Haha!

[protege]

Sure enough, a police cruiser suddenly appeared coming the other way. Despite his best efforts, Mr. Mustang got pulled over.

I've seen quite a few people get pulled over, usually because they're stupid enough to come roaring up behind me...and shit their pants when they see the cop. For example, while coming home from vacation, the PA Turnpike usually has troopers all over the place, in fairly obvious places. You'll see them at the bottom of the hills, near construction zones, and anywhere the limit drops from 65-70 to 55.

So you can imagine my lack of surprise, when I'm coming down one of the last big hills, and as expected, there's a cop sitting at the bottom. Even though my speedometer is hovering around 70 (a few miles over), I was a bit nervous. Not so much about speeding, but the idiot in the Mitsubishi that was right on my ass. I got even more nervous, when the cop put his lights on, pulled out...and promptly flagged the guy to pull over.

I don't know how fast the guy was going, but seriously? To catch up with me as quickly as he did, there's no way in hell that he wasn't doing triple digits. I sure hope he enjoyed getting nailed with a several hundred dollar fine

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

We had a state trooper using us as a rolling speed trap the other day. I was riding shotgun in my buddies crane, on our way to place some air conditioners on a roof. One thing about larger cranes, they're slooooooow. We can't take his crane on some limited access roads, top speed is right around 53 mph, downhill. Usual cruising speed is around 45 mph for him, as that's where it rides at 5-6 mpg rather than the 3 mpg it gets above 50 mph. His crane is almost an oversize load, IIRC, 2 inches wider or 750 lbs more and he'd have to pull permits just to move it.

We had a cop in an Unmarked Impala pull past us and then slow down to close to our speed. Kind of an unsafe tactic, there wasn't enough room between him and us for a car to safely merge after passing, so anyone passing us had to decide to either pass the cop too or drop back and wait. I might have called the non-emergency number to complain, but he was only in front of us for about 10 minutes before someone in the long lineup(going 45 in a 55 doesn't make you friends, lol) behind us got impatient and passed six cars and us. No clue as to his speed, but it had to be considerable. Subjective timing, but that car went past the crane (close to 60 ft long) in what seemed to me to be approx the same amount of time it takes my truck to pass a regular car (under 20 ft)

[MrWags]

I have had that happen as well. I was driving a semi in WI, about 71, maybe 72 in a 65. Had a State Trooper just sit in front of me and tag whoever decided to come around me.

[wolfie]

In Saskatchewan, it takes 4 police cars to conduct a roadside inspection on a semi. One behind the truck with its lights flashing, and the officer actually doing the inspection. Three in front of the truck, waiting to pounce on anyone who disobeys the "slow down or change lanes for stopped emergency vehicles" law.

[Slave to the Phone]

On the I17 there is a stretch of road that has a speed limit of 75mph. About half way down the mountain, there is a cut out in the median where cops sit and watch traffic. Most people who drive that road on a regular basis know that Officer Friendly is there. We all get in the right lane and slow down to 80. If someone blows by us, we see pretty lights go by and move over to the left lane because we know that there will soon be 2 vehicles parked on the side of the road.

Someone gets pulled over about once a week. Every time it happens, I always wonder what they were thinking. If everyone in front of you that had been speeding along in the left lane suddenly gets into the right lane and slows down, shouldn't that cue one into thinking that they knew something that you didn't?

[wolfie]

Also, due to the higher seating position, truckers can see further down the road than people in cars can. If you see all the trucks ahead of you getting out of a particular lane, they might have a reason.

Of course, sometimes the reason can be safely ignored by 4-wheelers - such as a construction zone sign telling trucks to use the left lane, or one announcing that an upcoming bridge has a clearance of 12'6" in the right lane.

[Slave to the Phone]

You are so right, wolfie. When we are driving cross-country, one of our rules is to watch the truckers. If they are doing the speed limit, we do it as well. If they are flying like a bat out of hell, well, we figure that speeding is OK.