Whoops Police Vehicle Crash, No Injuries
Prince George, B.C.- An RCMP officer and the driver of a brand new Ford Focus, are both getting tickets this evening following a crash on Foothills Boulevard near Vallencher just before 5:00.
Seems the officer, who was driving a dark blue unmarked police SUV, was northbound when he spotted a southbound driver violating the Traffic act. The officer is said to have flipped on the lights, and attempted to make a U-Turn, but was side swiped by the Ford Focus.
No one hurt, but the Focus was still on a test drive as it was bearing dealer plates.
Although RCMP Traffic Sergeant Al Steinhauser can be seen sitting in the Police vehicle, he is only there writing violation tickets for the officer who was driving that unmarked SUV and the driver of the Focus.
Comments
For the damage to be on the right hand side of the focus I assume he was following the officer and then swerved to the left when he noticed? Wakey wakey sunshine…
Ah yes the famous U turn without regard for other traffic. Happens all the time.
Yeah they cause more danger doing that then the original violator.
zigzag, do they really cause more danger than the violator? What do you base this on? There are very few accidents caused by police. Do you have some stats that back up your claim?
AND the culprit got away
No hard cold facts/stats to qoute but I know by personal observation in Canada and the USA and by watching yankee reality type cop shows that cops put themselves and other motorists in risky situations with different kinds of maneuvers and placement of their vehicles during pull overs. There is room for improvement and Ruez knows it. I am a big fan of the PIT maneuver though. I’d love to try it on the next punk that cuts me off ;-)
No hard cold facts/stats to qoute but I know by personal observation in Canada and the USA and by watching yankee reality type cop shows that cops put themselves and other motorists in risky situations with different kinds of maneuvers and placement of their vehicles during pull overs. There is room for improvement and Ruez knows it. I am a big fan of the PIT maneuver though. I’d love to try it on the next punk that cuts me off ;-)
So one traffic cop can write another cop a ticket for a work related offense ??? Since when ? That is why the police are regulated to the hilt and have internal investigations ! And the member of the public may be cleared too ! Another example why the RCMP needs a union ! What a bunch of BS !
Looks like quite the croc o bs to me. Why should that focus on a test drive get a ticket? They are writing it out to relieve the trouble the cops themselves are in.
I would fight that ticket to the end along with a counter sue
Everybody is human. Everybody makes mistakes
Be a man and own up.
Tractor, if he didn’t see / couldn’t stop in time while coming up behind the suburban than he does deserve a ticket. That’s undue care and attention all day long. I was rear ended last year and the other driver got the same ticket.
Of course the cops will say its undue care and attention. Whether or not its true we will never know….
So, if I tried a u turn on the highway and someone hit me, who’s fault is that?
If from behind I would say his. Two options, following too close or not paying attention. What if you jumped on the brakes and swerved to miss a kid (instead of a uturn). Same diff, no?
Ps – I should qualify this by saying I only assume the focus was coming up from behind from the pictures. I cannot think of another way to sideswipe the left side of the police cae with the right side of the focus…
The same thing happened to me on the hill going up to Clinton from Cache Creek. I was behind a police car by many car lengths still in the passing lane because he was going slower than the speed limit. Suddenly he slammed on the brakes, cut in front of me across the passing lane, missed me by about a car length only because I stepped on the brakes. Luckily there was no one behind me.
His focus was on the southbound driver who may have been speeding, not on what was happening behind him.
One does not enter a passing lane from the right lane unless it is clear of vehicles coming up from the rear and the move can be made without causing the driver of the car in the lane to put on the brakes, I do not care who you are. It is a dangerous move.
good point gus, be interesting to know if this was still where the passing lane is and if he made the uturn from the righthand lane – that would change things alright.
If the passenger front of the focus hit the driver side of the SUV, that seems to be about the only way it could happen, unless the SUV was parked on the shoulder.
In either case, the police car enterd a lane, likely not signalling his intention in sufficient time to cause the Focus to accommodate the emergency vehicle (flashing lights on) safely.
The question then becomes why was the driver of the Focus getting a ticket as well?
I love puzzles like this where one is given just enough information to raise one’s curiosity but not come up with a definite answer.
I have had cops pull a Starsky and Hutch on me three times. First on the Island and had to nail the brakes to not hit the cop, no warning he just turned in front of me.
Second, a cop came sliding across the medium on the freeway near Chilliwack. The cop was heading east did a 180 on the medium and was sliding toward me. Driving one off their mustangs they were using at the time imitating LA cops. I went to the Chilliwack cop shop, vented, never heard back.
Third time was one of those CN pretend cops did a 180 in front of me and I had to nail the brakes. If he had not taken me by surprise I would have hit the gas instead. That was when the contractor screwed up and 97 was closed all winter at the BCR site. This happened on the detour.
9 seconds into the video, in the distance, police car in right lane of a four lane divided road with a car following him, makes a u-turn in front of car by first getting into the left hand lane, then crossing back over right hand lane in front of the car behind him.
Hard to tell how much space there was, but looks dangerous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1DJVXbQ2Bs&feature=player_detailpage
This is a link to an interesting observation by an individual who apparently drove a police vehicle for some 25 years
http://www.drivesmartbc.ca/aggressive-driving/expect-unexpected-police-vehicles
âI was required as a court witness last week for a collision between a police vehicle and the civilian vehicle following it. The officer wanted to stop an oncoming vehicle so he turned on his emergency equipment, moved right, slowed and began a u-turn to pursue it. The vehicle following the police vehicle carried on as usual and tried to pass by on the left. I say tried because when the police vehicle turned left a sideswipe collision resulted.â
Looks like thats Sergeant Al Steinhauser’s regular unit… it’ll look good on him driving around with a damaged truck for a while. lol
Gus, I think your version of the police making a sudden U-turn is the one which most likely occurred. I came upon a scene like that just south of 100 Mile House on the four lane highway. A near miss, very close call for everyone.
A few weeks ago I was coming into the bowl and waiting for the light at Domano. In the straight through lane. The two lane left turn lanes to go up Tyner were empty. Just as the light turned green to go a police car with sirens and lights came down one of those left turn lanes and cut right in front of me the intersection heading into town. Changing lanes in an intersection is against the law. So I understand. It was called timing folks. If he was a few seconds late I would have been in the intersection and I think he would have been more than embarrassed. Exact timing saved that officers ass. One day it won’t.
Harbinger…..you should be embarrassed telling that story !
Error on my story. He did not have his lights and siren on. That is why I was surprised by his sudden appearance.
Really – How many times have we heard why aren’t the police held to the same standard as the rest of us – here they mention a ticket maybe issued or is being issued and everyone is still complaining really folks – getagrip and Eagleone do u really thing he will drive around in a damaged truck where or where do i get the meds you must be on and I’m guessing you must have been stopped by him to know what vehicle he drives. Am I right or wrong Eagleone
“There are very few accidents caused by police. Do you have some stats that back up your claim?”
Do you?
Lots of crashes are caused by police.
Maybe the traffic section should check out the school zone on Malaspina raceway a little more often. It’s getting ridiculous down there.
This was my sister. She was in the inside lane and so was the cop when he decided to whip the nut. He swerved into the outer lane flipped his lights and turned without looking.(he admitted this). She got a speeding ticket for pacing him up the hill and he got driving without due care and unsafe lane change. And tractor is right, the only reason she got the ticket is to make the accident 50/50 blame. She is fighting the ticket of course.
I know how these pages works so im not going to answer questions or argue with anyone, i just wanted people to know what really happened because this story is not all correct.
This was my sister. She was in the inside lane and so was the cop when he decided to whip the nut. He swerved into the outer lane flipped his lights and turned without looking.(he admitted this). She got a speeding ticket for pacing him up the hill and he got driving without due care and unsafe lane change. And tractor is right, the only reason she got the ticket is to make the accident 50/50 blame. She is fighting the ticket of course.
I know how these pages works so im not going to answer questions or argue with anyone, i just wanted people to know what really happened because this story is not all correct.
Looks like the cop turned left into the side of the Focus.
Sounds a little bogus, if the car driver received a speeding ticket for “pacing” the police vehicle, kind of obvious it is about sharing the blame. Shame on the policeman, in this instance. If the speeding ticket is justifiable, then the driver should have been pulled over. On the other hand, the car driver should not bother fighting this one, in a case of civilian ‘non member’ vs. a traffic cop, guess who the judge votes for as “not guilty”
metalman.
“the car driver received a speeding ticket for “pacing” the police vehicle”
If the Focus driver was “pacing” the cop car, that means the cop was speeding. The cop didn’t have emergency equipment on during this “pacing”, therefore he had no business breaking the speed limit. The “pacing” had no influence on the crash. Doing a uturn in front of another car does though.
Bogus!
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