Sunday, September 27, 2009

"Policeman nearly run over at breathalyser"

Tonight on the news was an item about a breathalyser policeman who was almost hit by a car at a breathalyser stop.

The film crew for the news item were filming when it happened. The report said that the car hit the light wand held by the police officer trying to stop the car.

Now, I know that you must stop when the police order you to.

However, I have seen some foolish actions by police who have stepped out in front of speeding cars - I don't know what they were thinking, if the driver is speeding or drunk they may not be paying attention and could therefore not be able to stop in time.

In this case the policeman stepped out of the way as the car went past, and he threw the light wand at the car's windscreen. The car did not hit the light while he was holding it.

The police pursued the vehicle but lost them, but they have the car's rego.

Having said all that, the book should be thrown at the driver who drove through the stop, he/she was clearly being signalled to stop for the breathalyser.

2 comments:

Mine Host said...

My sympathy is with the motorist.

Plenty of times I have been pulled over/stopped by police who deliberately are not as visible as they should have been.

Each time they bunged on a proper pork chop performance like as if spotting an unexpected copper lurking halway behind a bush/between two cars should have been my main driving priority.

A police uniform, especially a half hidden one, is just about the diametric opposite of "high vis"

kae said...

Hi SATP
He was standing in the middle of the road at a breathalyser and wearing a high-vis jacket, waving a long orange/red wand light.

The car went nowhere near him, he stepped toward the car but it was almost a whole lane away from the him

I watched the police program last night on seven and they said the same thing. A silly 22 year old in a Beamer zoomed past at 151kph. She was behind and beside a truck. The knuckleheaded voiceover said that the driver narrowly missed the policeman. He was standing on the shoulder and she was in the inside lane. I don't know how they see that.

You are right about the main thing you are scanning for when driving being seeing coppers jump out in front of you. Happened to me in Wagga. Nearly hit him, and it was before high-visibility jackets. I don't think I was speeding, he just wanted to breathalyse me - waste of time, I'd just driven up from Melbourne on my way to Sydney. I recall it was a wet night and you know how hard it is to see the lines on a shiny road?