I’m a harsh critic of movies. I have so little free time these days that I am overly selective of the movies I watch. I really don’t like my time being wasted on anything less than quality films. One way I know that I was really into a movie is when I remember one liners that stay with me a long time…
Shawshank Redemption. What a great flick. Tim Robbins told Morgan Freeman in the prison yard, “You have to get busy living or get busy dying”.
When I drive down the street on patrol I see countless people who are busy living. They are so busy living that they forget that the vehicle they are driving can easily “get them busy dying”. We see it on a daily basis.
We see kids who use a vehicle to demonstrate how tough they are. The squealing tires, the booming stereo, the unsafe maneuvers, and careless recklessness. Often you find a skinny scrawny 16 year-old kid with zits all over his face or a head shaved with odd designs, trying to act 10 years older than he is, looking at everyone around him to see how many people are looking at him. Looking everywhere except at the road in front of him. Next time you see a kid driving like an idiot, watch for a minute. You’ll see nothing except the glee in his face as he looks at you when he passes by. He wants to make sure you are watching how cool he is.
When we stop him we get attitude. When we call Mom and Dad we get attitude from them. My little Johnny would never drive like that. You must be mistaken Cop. What’s your badge number. You shouldn’t be harassing my son. I’m talking to your Chief!
Months later we knock on that parents door at 2:00am in the morning and give them the bad news. Although these people treated us like crap before we still have compassion for the situation because no one should have to experience such a senseless loss…all for nothing!
Yes Mr. and Mrs. Parent. Your son is very cool now. Six feet under the dirt. He was never made to feel cool at home so he had to do it elsewhere. They call that low self-esteem. His driving could have been managed with some strong guidelines and rules at home, but instead you made us out to be the bad-guys right in front of your son. All you taught him was that he didn’t have to be held accountable for his actions. You can apologize to him now, every time you go visit him at the place where his car violently wrapped itself around a telephone pole. Get busy living or get busy making crosses. How about getting busy being a good parent and realizing that your kids make mistakes that need to be corrected by loving parents?
The other night at about 10:00pm, I was responding to a 911 call. I was traveling at just under 50 mph in a posted 35-mph zone with no other traffic around. I had the right of way on a through roadway with no stop requirements. I saw headlights approach from a side street and expected the car to stop at the stop sign but as I’ve learned over the years, I also anticipated that the car could pull out in front of me because a driver could be “in a rush”, or “intoxicated”. As I expected the car pulled out right in front of me causing me to brake sharply. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw no one behind me. This guy just had to pull out right in front of an approaching car and couldn’t wait an extra 5 seconds for the road to be clear?
I hit my red and blue lights and the car pulled over. Because I was going to a 911 call I pulled alongside the car and rolled down my passenger side window. What I saw was an older guy driving, a person I presumed to be his wife or girlfriend, and two small kids in the back seat. I told the guy, “If I wasn’t going to a call right now you’d be getting a $150.00 ticket for failure to yield, next time wait for the road to be clear especially with your kids in the car!”
I’ll never forget the guy’s response… “Hey buddy, you were going pretty fast down that roadway, don’t be telling me that I was wrong…”
Hey buddy? I’m a cop and you call me hey buddy in front of your kids? You tell me that you recognized that my car was approaching you at a fast speed but yet you pull in front of the speeding vehicle anyway? What do you think the speeding vehicle would plow into first if the “hey buddy” wasn’t a cop paying attention? Your kids in the back seat you idiot! And what if a drunk driver with impaired reaction time drove the approaching car?
And by the way, next time I respond to a 911 call at your house because your kid is choking and turning blue, or because someone is breaking into your house I’ll remember to do 35 mph all the way there. Just in case some IDIOT decides to pull in front of a moving police car!
Don’t be telling you that you were wrong? God I wish I hadn’t been going to a call at the time. I’d be telling you to press hard when you signed your name on the bottom of the citation. I’d love to hear you tell the Judge why you pulled in front of a vehicle you deemed to be speeding when no other cars were behind it and you could have waited.
This is the kind of idiot who will belittle the cops in front of his kids when we try to explain that his kid was driving dangerously on the roadway. This is the kind of idiot that causes this kind of floral design along the roadway because of stupid carelessness.
I monitor a busy 4-way intersection that has had a recent increase in accidents. During rush hour traffic in the afternoon I see the light change to green for the cars traveling in my direction. The cars start forward and brake abruptly. Some idiot goes blazing across the intersection against a red light in cross traffic.
I pull in behind the car and pull it over. The annoyed driver says to me “What’s the problem?” I want to tell him the problem is he’s driving like an idiot and almost caused a serious accident with multiple vehicles but I maintain some professionalism and explain that he ran a red light at a dangerous intersection.
“That’s bullshit, the light was yellow, you just have to get your quota don’t you, it’s law abiding citizens like me that pay your salary!”
I ask myself what this idiot would possibly be saying to me if an 8 year-old kid on a bike had started to cross that intersection when the light changed only to get mowed down by this moron doing 45 mph against a red light. I wonder what this guy would think to himself whenever he drove past the artistic decoration that HE CAUSED alongside the roadway.
Yep, Im just here to harass you sir, sign on the line so I can meet my quota…
The other day I had a paramedic intern riding with me. We were driving on a road where 2 lanes merge into one. It was raining and the streets were wet and slippery. Ahead of me was an 18-wheel truck. Just as I was almost merged into the single lane, the intern’s words mirrored my thoughts. “What the hell?” A white blur of vehicle passed alongside of me pulling directly in front of me clearing my bumper by inches. And then the idiot rides within 2 feet of the 18-wheel truck!
I looked around to make sure that I was still in a police car! Hello! A police car! I remember before I became a cop how I always used to slow down and drive extra safe when I saw a cop on the road near-by. My! I never thought of pulling right in front of one and cutting it off. This guy kept reminding me how he had “the right of way” as he signed the citation for TWO moving violations in one shot!
Thanks for your contribution to roadside decorations you stupid…ok, I’ll try to maintain my composure…I patrol where there is a state highway with one lane in each direction. Whether Im at work, or on my way home, I always see the impatient driver who just has to pass that car ahead of him. Even though there’s a line of cars ahead of the one he wants to pass, he just has to pass that car…at any expense. Unfortunately he misjudges the distance of approaching traffic and causes a near collision as he darts back into the lane without safe clearance from the car he passed, or the approaching car panics and brakes causing the car in back of it to rear end it. What is the possible benefit to pass one car when 8 other cars are directly in front of it? And how could you have the guts to pull out into a lane of opposing traffic when YOU CAN SEE THE OPPOSING TRAFFIC COMING?
To those of you who think Im being hypercritical, think about sitting at home gluing 2 sticks together, putting a couple flowers on it, and knowing that’s all you’ll ever have to remember your loved one by… Your 16-year-old son who had a couple cans of beer at a teen drinking party and then drove home at a high rate of speed because he was late…and drunk! “Hey what’s the big deal officer, they’re just kids being kids”
Cut and paste this and then print it out to post on your refrigerator. Maybe you and your kids can learn something: (If you don’t know how to cut and paste email Brent and he’ll tell you how to do it.)
It takes seven tenths of a second to kill a person on a vehicle crash. Studies at Yale and Cornell Universities provided a dramatic split second chronology of what happens when a car rams into a tree at 55 mph. I suggest you picture your son in the driver’s seat.
• At one tenth of a second, the front bumper and grill collapse.
• At two tenths of a second the hood crumbles, rises, and smashes into the windshield while the grillwork disintegrates.
• At three tenths of a second your son is sprung upright from his seat, his knees break from being jammed under the dashboard, and the steering wheel bends and twist under his grip.
• At four tenths of a second the front of the car is destroyed and dead still, but the rear of the vehicle is still traveling at 55 mph. The half-ton motor impacts with the tree.
• At five tenths of a second your son’s fear-frozen hands bend the steering column into an almost vertical position as he is impaled on the steering wheel shaft. Jagged steel punctures his lungs and arteries.
• At six tenths of a second the impact rips the shoes you bought him off his feet. The vehicle chassis bends in the middle, and your son’s head is slammed into the windshield. The vehicle’s rear end begins its downward fall as it’s spinning tires churn into the ground.
• At seven tenths of a second, the entire body of the car is twisted grotesquely out of shape. In one final agonizing convulsion, the front seat rams forward pinning your son against what used to be the steering wheel shaft and dashboard. Blood pours from his mouth, the result of massive internal injuries. His face is torn into horrible lacerations from smashing through the windshield and almost every bone in his young body is broken. Shock has frozen his heart but he doesn’t mind. Your son is already dead.
When we do our part to prevent tragedy don’t get pissed off.
When you do your part, as a parent or driver, you can avoid visiting this place. Either as a visitor,,, or as a resident.
Get busy living or get busy dying. It’s your choice!
Drive safe folks. We are begging you! From the staff at Netcops PSI
* Special thanks to my friends and partners, motor officers Tommy Hanson and Bryan
Smith whose efforts do make a difference. They provided the technical information for
this article and we thank them.
* Special thanks to my partner Brent, for putting all this together on short notice.
Hey on a brighter note, want to rent a good movie? Shawshank Redemption, highly recommended if you want to see a movie where you have a BIG smile at the end…
Take care and Stay Safe!
