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אַרְיֵה |
Yeah, I have seen many of them driving like aggressive assholes. Tailgating, making erratic lane changes to get one car length ahead, using the shoulder of the road as a passing lane, texting, etc. They are old. Really old. Maybe as old as 20s or even 30s. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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Member |
Interesting summary. I wonder if the policy is consistent with the expectations of citizens. Not knowing the policy, I would have expected an officer to come by. There's too much he said/she said and I believe it's helpful to have a contemporaneous record from a neutral part - the reason for a police report. Perhaps it's a funding issue - if we expect reports for such things then we need to fund the required positions. BTW, I had a car damaged in the parking lot at work and my agent was absolutely insistent that I wait for a police report. I waited almost 3 hours (checking with dispatch every 30 min or so) before I gave up. (Dispatch kept saying officer would be there in 10 - 15 minutes) Speak softly and carry a | |||
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Green Mountain Boy |
You're lucky an officer showed up at all. My mother got rear ended and both vehicles had major damage and there was fluids and debris all over the road and the cops refused to show up. !~God Bless the U.S. Military~! If the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off Light travels faster than sound, this is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak | |||
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Cat Whisperer |
you disagree that some older people shouldn't be driving? I commute two hours a day and the only people I see that almost cause accidents are very old. Changing lanes without looking, blowing stop signs, etc. I do agree with you that some younger people shouldn't be driving either. ------------------------------------ 135 ├┼┼╕ 246R | |||
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Only the strong survive |
One of Charlottesville's finest was setting in the median of incoming south bound vehicles Sunday. Some young'un was talking on the cellphone in the fast lane. He gave chase and finally caught up about half a mile later.  Made my day.  This message has been edited. Last edited by: 41, 41 | |||
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| אַרְיֵה |
I do NOT "disagree that some older people shouldn't be driving." I agree. Some older people should not be driving. Also,
Hint: Some people should not be driving. As far as your second point, the "only" people you see that "almost" cause accidents are old people -- you must have an area of operation that has a very skewed population. I see a lot of people who "almost" cause accidents. Some of them are old, some are young, some are white, some are black, some are ... The thing that most of them have in common is not age, it's attitude. It is "me first." It is "get out of my way." It is aggressive driving, almost always significantly above the posted speed limit, characterized by sudden lane changes, usually without using turn signals. All of this to gain maybe one car length, while the people who drive sanely will catch up with the aggressive driver at the very next traffic light. Or maybe pass the aggressive driver while s/he is at the side of the road having a conversation with the nice police officer. These aggressive, in-a-hurry, screw everybody else, drivers seem to span all age groups (fewer of them in the "old" category, but there are some). They include all races, genders, and probably religious affiliations. Bottom line, I agree: Some people should not be driving. How to screen them? I am in favor of a driving test, both written and in the car, to renew a license, maybe every five or eight years. Not practical, I know, with the number of drivers vs. the number of examiners available. We pilots have to do that. A flight review or equivalent at least every two years. No carrying passengers in your airplane unless you have logged at least three take-offs and three landings in the same category and class of aircraft within the past ninety days. No flying IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) unless you have logged at least one holding pattern entry and six instrument approach procedures within the past six months. We stay current, we are re-evaluated on a regular basis. It's too bad that we cannot have similar safety standards for drivers, but no politician here in this country has the balls to push for safety standards anything like pilots have here, or drivers have in many European countries. Back to the original statement, if you think that one single group of drivers represents the problem, I suggest that you have tunnel vision with respect to this topic. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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A Grateful American |
^^^ Crystal Clear. "the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב! | |||
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| Member |
Let me add a proven fact. People learn from experience. A seventy year old individual has slower reflexes than a sixteen year old, no question about that. However, a person who has survived to the age of seventy clearly has more driving experience. These things tend to balance out. | |||
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Oriental Redneck |
My dear old dad is 95, had a stroke many years ago, and he's still active. Still does his gardening everyday, and drives around doing his own grocery shopping. Stubborn man, I tell you.  Q | |||
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| Do No Harm, Do Know Harm |
It is an expectation brought on by the insurance companies and agencies not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings. Many jurisdictions don't have this issue, and will tell you they aren't coming. The "He said/She said" does not change just because an officer shows up. All an officer can do is write down what He says and She says. The officer, unless they are a certified re-constructionist (probably 20 in my dept of 1,800), cannot testify to their opinion of what happened. Just today, our supervisor said that his #1 complaint that he gets is people wanting to change accident reports...because they don't agree with what the officer documented they said. I had 3 wreck calls today. One decided they didn't have any damage and declined a report. Of the other 2, one had significant damage that required a report and the other had very minor damage, but one of the driver's insurance situation was questionable. Some times waiting for police is a good idea. But a rear-end collision with minor damage is not one of them. Today at around 5:30pm our dispatcher sent out a message. There were 49 CALLS holding, and not one single officer available, CITY-WIDE. An officer for every minor fender bender, is indeed an unrealistic expectation. We are something around 200 officers below what we are budgeted to have. More, likely. We can't get decent applicants, and we have around a 30% attrition rate for police academies once we do get them hired. We're going backwards! In the first 7 hours of my shift I had answered over 20 calls. Then from 8pm until 1am I was stuck on a felony arrest. I was on track to answer 40 calls for a 10 hour shift until I encountered a drunk that wouldn't stop trying to pick a fight, then bit an officer. So yeah...fender benders... Knowing what one is talking about is widely admired but not strictly required here. Although sometimes distracting, there is often a certain entertainment value to this easy standard. -JALLEN "All I need is a WAR ON DRUGS reference and I got myself a police thread BINGO." -jljones | |||
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posting without pants |
First off, you made multiple mistakes. I say this because I've been THAT Officer on many an accident call. Let me preface with this. Traffic accidents, at least those that aren't caused by a drunk driver, or a driver blatnetly disobeying traffic laws are CIVIL matters. They really shouldn't have anything to do with the police. At least here in MO, you are NOT required to get a police report, and in 95 percent of instances there are a waste of everyone's time, especially mine. As to your questions/problems, 1. With regard to the pics of your license plate. Anything in public view is NOT private. Your license plate is PUBLIC and anyone can take a picture of it. You are at a public pool in a bathing suit and someone takes a picture you don't like? Tough crap brother, public. 2. With regard to the citation, I can't speak for OH, but here, the officer MUST witness the event in order to issue a citation. I can't issue a citation based upon probability, or because person XXX said someone was going too fast. If I didn't see it, I can't ticket it. There is no such local ordinance here about bumping a car, or anything. If there is not traffic violation I witnessed, or didn't get caught on a traffic camera, then a ticket isn't going to be issued. Again, this is a CIVIL MATTER for your insurance companies to discuss. That is what you pay them that money each month for. If your insurance company won't fight for you, then find a new one. The exceptions for this are uninsured drivers, suspended/revoked license or the like. 3. Again, I don't know about OH, but here, the officer DOES NOT DETERMINE FAULT. If we write a report, the report only says factual information (name, address, DL number, Licesne plate number, VIN number, Insurance company and policy number, phone number, etc). This is all information you can trade yourselves. Then we write a narrative that says "I met with driver 1 who claimed A, B, and C. I then met with driver 2 who claimed X, Y, and Z." I wasn't there, and didn't see the accident. I don't know who did what. 4. Police officers ARE NOT SECRETARIES. We don't do reports for documentation purposes. We catch criminals. If there isn't a crime involved, in an accident situation like this a DUI driver, stolen vehicle, or vehicle fleeing from us, then it really isn't our area. It is civil court matters, not criminal court matters. Beyond the criminal events mentioned above doing an accident report is really a courtesy we try to provide, but we are in no means obligated to provide it. Bottom line is, multiple fails here all around. You started it, understandably you were upset, but you were a douche initially by yelling profanity at her. She didn't help by not providing her info to you, but what did you expect after you, an able bodied male, yelled profanity at her? You continued it by complicating the matter and "blocking" your license plate. Also, the officer was probably a bit lazy and probably a bit peeved at your for acting like a child. I would have yelled at you more sternly then the officer did, but I would have completed a slightly better report than he did. You were uninformed, and at times acted like a douche, but in the end, this will all be sorted out by the insurance companies. Just the same has you both been adults and traded information on scene and called it in. Kevin Strive to live your life so when you wake up in the morning and your feet hit the floor, the devil says "Oh crap, he's up." | |||
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| posting without pants |
Then i saw this... If you weren't going to even file a goddamn claim why in the holy hell did you waste everyone's time!?!?!?!?!? I'm really not trying to dogpile here, but I hope everyone else on the internet reads this. If you believed all the nonsense you posted in the OP about police reports that wasn't true, and wanted one anyway... BUT DIDN"T EVEN DO ANYTHING WITH IT... WHAT WAS THE POINT!?!?!? You realize during what I can picture is about 30 to 40 minutes.... Then about 1 hours at least additional for the officer to type up the report you took an officer, who could be dealing with actual criminals off the street for NO DAMN REASON!!!!! Come one dude.... This is why people complain we are never around. This is why there are people in large metro areas complaining officers never responded to their event. This is no different than the woman who gets beat up by her baby daddy, he gets taken to jail, and she never shows up to court to prosecute him cause "she loves him." Even though it happens every other Saturday... Gimmie a break man. Strive to live your life so when you wake up in the morning and your feet hit the floor, the devil says "Oh crap, he's up." | |||
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| posting without pants |
To add for posterity... In an accident you are REQUIRED to provide a few things. Your name, and driver's license info and other similar stuff. Your insurance company, and policy number. As a general rule of thumb, if ever involved in an accident, you should take your camera phone (who doesn't have one these days) and photograph the other driver's: 1. Driver's License 2. Insurance card 3. License Plate 4. VIN number (in case the car isn't registered, or has a dealer plate, or was recently purchased) Then you should also get the phone number of the other driver. BEFORE YOU DO ALL OF THIS... MOVE OFF THE ROAD TO A PARKING LOT, OR THE SHOULDER, OR THE NEXT EXIT. I can't tell you how many idiots sit in the middle of the lane, even on the damn interstate with cars whizzing by at 70mph cause "they want us to see the scene." NO MORONS!!!! Get the hell off the road before you get hit and killed by another driver, or at min, cause another accident I have do deal with. GET THE HELL OFF THE ROAD AND TO A SAFE SPOT!!!! People don't move over for my car that is lit up brighter than a Christmas tree with flashing lights and loud sirens. You think they are going to move over for you? If there are other passengers in the car, you should get that as well as provide that to the other driver if there are passengers in your car. Little known fact, I have ABSOLUTELY ZERO way of knowing if a driver's insurance is legit or not. There is no database for it. The same insurance card they provide you, I'm just going to copy down on the form. I have no idea if it is real, or if fake, or if they got it up front and stopped paying the bill and it is now invalid. If you are involved in an accident, and have doubts, then by all means, call us. I can use my in car computer to verify a person's identify, and driver's license, and license plate. I will gladly do so for you. Now, if someone refused to provide this information, yes, you should call us. If someone tries to flee the scene, you should call us. To prevent this, you should use that trusty camera phone, immediately upon an accident to take a picture of the vehicle, license plate, and driver if possible. Then we might be able to investigate it. Also, if you suspect the other driver is under the influence of alcohol, or drugs, then yes... call us. If this was an actual road rage incident, then call us. If there are serious injuries, then call us. If your car is disabled and blocking traffic to the point where you are a hazard and may be struck by other vehicles, then obviously call us. If not, then this is ALL a civil matter. This is why I pay the extra 2 dollars per month on my personal insurance for uninsured/under insured coverage. The last frustrating thing we deal with is someone coming into the station two weeks later and telling us they want a report because there got hit by a male driver in a blue car. How in the hell could i investigate that? How many men drive blue cars in your area? A few hundred thousand possible suspects? Strive to live your life so when you wake up in the morning and your feet hit the floor, the devil says "Oh crap, he's up." | |||
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| Low Profile Member |
Ha. Right | |||
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| אַרְיֵה |
I don't commute two hours a day, but some days I spend eight or ten hours in my delivery truck. While it is quite possible that many (but NOT the "only") people who "almost" cause accidents are old, there's an old saying about "almost." "Almost" doesn't count. "Actual" counts. My observation is that in actual accidents old people seem to be involved in approximately the same proportion that they represent in the driving population. Maybe less, as the general tendency is that older people have had a few years to learn judgement and restraint, and are in general, less aggressive drivers than the not-so-old, "gotta get there right now" drivers. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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| Low Profile Member |
Yes,my own observations indicate that the majority of accidents, particularly serious and deadly, seem to be the result of reckless, irresponsible driving not typical of seniors. | |||
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| Member |
Why is it that after a 14 hour shift, tired, dirty, tore your uniform chasing a dumb ass, there was always a fender bender flagging you down when you were two blocks from the station? | |||
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