Welcome to the Danger Zone!
A Vehicular Accident Site is dead ahead. What to do?
- stop?
- slow down?
- pullover?
- go around it?
The answer will depend on the curcumstances. But which ever you choose, there’s no getting around the fact: You’re in the Danger Zone!
You have passed them on the freeway. See them on TV. Maybe you were even in one! So how do you answer the question: What is an Accident Site?
Is it……
- Place where vehicles collide.
- A place where emergency public safety personnel are put their training to good work.
- A place where additional accidents are just waiting to happen.
Is the answer A, B, or C?
The answer is, of course, all the above!
FATAL ATTRACTION
Drunk drivers are a major factor in police collisions. After dark, the overhead patrol unit’s lights actually attract drunk drivers.
We have had officers seriously injured and killed here by drivers who swerved towards the flashing lights!
This was mostly happening on traffic stops, where the officer had a violator stopped, and the offending DUI driver zeroed in on the lights.
Officers are always cognizant of their surroundings, particularly if stopping a car on a busy expressway. We just ask citizens to proceed with equal caution.
Senior Patrol Officer Tim O’Keefe
Tulsa Police Department
HOW & WHERE TO STOP
Traffic stops are essential to effective traffic law enforcement. But stopping on or near the roadway is one of the most dangerous facets of police work. Stress to the drivers in your family the importance of selecting a safe location at which to make a stop should be pulled over.
Ideally motorist should pull over as soon as possible, yet as far away from traffic as codintions permit. Driveways, parking lots, rest areas, pulloffs, and other areas beyond the right shoulder should be used whenever available.*
*IACP Highway Safety Committee
AS YOU WOULD A SCHOOL ZONE…
Just as you reduce your speed in a school zone to compensate for the unpredictable – you should drive with
equal care when approaching an a typical traffic situation with officers on the scene.
· Slow down
· Be acutely aware and yield to the first responders working the scene
In other words “Proceed with Caution” – those words are not only the name of our nationwide public awareness campaign – but they are also a call to action to save lives.