Arging with the police is a road to nowhere.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Most of us know that, right? Well, this person, and probably a ton more that I didn't see, didn't.

The police closed off a main road due to a car accident. The driver, for some reason or another (probably drunk off his/her arse, given that the accident happened on a Saturday night) drove bang into a telegraph pole and brought the whole thing down. So yeah, electric wires lying in a puddle along with a huge telegraph pole blocking the road. The police barricade it off and stand at each end directing traffic to go the long way round. This woman decides rather than to just drive down the diversion, to get out her car and scream at the policeman. Cuz she can't possibly go the long way round, she's in a hurry!

I, along with several other people, watched the whole thing. The policeman, funnily enough, did not give way and the woman only left when he threatened to arrest her. The whole time she spent screaming at him, she could have been at her destination already!

[Nunavut Pants]

Makes me wish he had written up some kind of infraction. Though "Driving While Stupid" isn't anything they can actually ticket you for...

[mjr]

a telegraph pole...

The police barricade it off and stand at each end directing traffic to go the long way round.

Were they directing traffic in Morse code??

[Lace Neil Singer]

Were they directing traffic in Morse code??

No, he was standing by the large, yellow sign that stated "Diversion" and had a black arrow pointing in the correct direction, and the large, red sign that stated "Road Closed". Cuz people were seemingly unable to understand either sign, the policeman ended up having to verbally explain to people who stopped their car and demanded to know why the road was blocked off.



And "Driving while stupid" really ought to be a criminal offence.

[An Haddock]

Were they directing traffic in Morse code??

Clearly the woman was in a hurry to have a letter sent via autogyro to the Prussian Consolate in Siam!

[csquared]

Were they directing traffic in Morse code??

No, they couldn't if they wanted to. The driver knocked down the telegraph pole.

PS.
- .... .- - / .-- .- ... / .- / -... .- -.. / .--- --- -.- . .-.-.-

[wolfie]

To get to Arquebus Motor Freight's yard from Freeway, you take Major Street 1 past the intersection of Major Street A, then turn left into the driveway.

A few months back, I was on my way to the yard on MS1, when I saw that the police had the intersection of MS1 and MSA blocked off. What did I do? I parked at the side of the road, walked up to the officer at the blockade, and asked "Excuse me Officer", explaining the situation and asking the best way to get to the yard. She checked who was on duty at the checkpoint going the other way (intersection of MS1 and Major Street B - the first major street if you keep going past the yard) to let him know that there would be a truck coming that was OK to let through since it would be turning into the company yard "upstream" from the intersection of MS1 and MSA.

MS1 was wide enough that I could make a U-turn (no traffic due to blockage from one direction, and being past the residential street people were using to get around the mess) and head back to Freeway - no need to take an 18 wheeler down a residential street, take (according to my original route, the exit before MS1) the exit for Major Street 2, go to Major Street B, take it to Major Street 1 (officer there lets me make the turn), and down to the company yard.

Being polite will get you a LOT further than yelling and screaming will.

[Deserted]

I had a similar situation a while back. Fatality accident in front of a local college. Standard police action here is to close the street for some distance around the wreck while running the investigation -- in this case, 1/4 mile in each direction.

I needed to pick someone up across the street from the college, a few hundred feet from the wreck. I parked and walked up to the officer blocking the intersection I needed to go through, told him where I needed to go and why. He didn't even bother radioing, just told me not to pass the wreck (which I didn't need to).

Another time, the entrance to my (non-wheelchair) passenger's apartment complex was blocked by the police (don't remember why). I just pulled into the shopping center next door and told them that they would need to walk from there. (Had it been a wheelchair passenger, I would've parked at the shopping center and then pushed them to their apartment.)

[panamared]

Sheesh, what people won't use for an excuse to vent off steam

[MadMike]

I was taking one of my cats to a vet appointment, and apparently there was some sort of accident nearby. Just before the vet's office was a guy redirecting traffic. I pulled up to him, rolled down the window, and asked him the best way to get to the vet. He told me to go on through, and then yelled to his partner up ahead that I was going to the vet. I guess the accident or whatever it was was past there. I was relieved, since I didn't want to keep a crying cat in the car any longer than I had to.

[bhskittykatt]

Hey, at least they had signs up. I've come up on accidents where the road is closed, and had to figure my own way around. In a town I was not familiar with, pre-smartphone era. Ended up driving myself up 8th street in Astoria, OR, which...is a hell of a lot steeper at the top than it looks from the bottom, to the point where it feels like your car wants to tip backward.

[Nunavut Pants]

There are some uphill streets in San Francisco that are kind of interesting to view through the windshield of a low-slung sports car. I have on more than one occasion seen, from top to bottom of my windshield:
- Sky
- Bay
- Hood

No street, or even land, was visible for that short moment when I got to the top of the hill. It was an act of faith to continue straight and trust that there was still road in front of me. Though I'm pretty sure I would have noticed a cliff suddenly appearing in the middle of SF...

[wolfie]

Though I'm pretty sure I would have noticed a cliff suddenly appearing in the middle of SF...

You probably would have - but would you have noticed a Norm suddenly appearing?

[Deserted]

...or a Woody?

[EricKei]

Well, if you had driven off the edge, you can guarantee that, wherever you land, everybody knows your name...