I have a sad theory: more cops will die.
Last night, while driving to the market with my daughter,
I saw blue and red flashing lights ahead. Far ahead actually.
This particular road is known (by locals) as a speed trap. So it came as no surprise when I saw a police car had pulled over a motorist.
Cars were slowing down as we got nearer, and moving over as far left as they could, which is the law here in NYS now. You have to slow down and give the police car, or any disabled or emergency vehicle, plenty of space as you pass. This law was created as a life-saving safety measure. Too many policemen were getting run over in the line of duty due to the carelessness or inattention of passing motorists.
“Slow down! Give us the safety of more room to work,” they demanded.
And rightly so I believe.
But just as you can’t fix stupid, you can’t always make everything safe with laws and regulations.
Two of my pet peeves in this area are:
The new kid’s playgrounds. Rubber mats or 6 inches of loose tree bark under all the playground swings and equipment so kids don’t get hurt when they fall down; as they inevitably will.
Kids fall. Knees get skinned. They survive and learn to be more careful, to have better balance and control. A little grass and dirt is good for kids. And grass stains are great for the laundry soap makers too!
Playgrounds are so expensive to create now that there are less of them. We think we are making kids “safer”, but in the long run we make less playgrounds so fewer kids have access. To save a few skinned knuckles and knees we make more kids obese because there is no playground nearby.
We trade a temporary boo-boo, for a lifetime of chronic ills due to childhood inactivity, obesity, and decreased social interaction. I’ve noticed
a lot of playgrounds have disappeared since this rule or law went into effect. Have we really helped kids with this?
And of course, those LED police car lights. These new LED light bars on police cars are just too darned bright!
I get it, you want us to see you better. That seems safe. And from a distance, bright lights are good. As you are speeding to the scene, bravo bright lights. But once you have a car pulled over, turn down all them stinkin’ bright lights because you’re blinding us as we approach!
Remember the old police cars, Andy Griffith style? A black and white car, one big flashing red light on top. That worked. I’m really feeling “the Elder” now. As in “remember in the good old days”!
Back then you could easily spot a police car. Now it’s seems half the time they sit in unmarked cars so we can’t see them at all, and the other half with massive LED light systems that make us see them to the exclusion of all else.
So, as I was pulling up to the scene yesterday with my daughter, all those bright, flashing, red and blue LED lights on the police car actually made it impossible for me to see the police officer.
I could just barely make out the darkness of his silhouette as he was making his way back from the violator’s car to his police car. I was blinded by the lights! (props out to the amazing 1970’s Manfred Mann song, “Blinded by the Light”)
“This isn’t safe!” I exclaimed to my daughter.
It makes me wonder now if the statistics which prompted the new laws are less about the driver’s carelessness and more about the new super-bright LED light technologies and the policies of the police officers using those lights?
There will always be rubberneckers, slowing down to gawk. With them straining harder to see through the bright lights and then trying to re-fix their eyes on the road ahead with pin-sized pupils due to the bright light, I suspect more accidents, horrors and deaths are in the works until we get this bright LED light thing sorted.
I love using the British word “sorted”, instead of the American term “fixed”!
In the meantime, be careful out there. Older eyes don’t adjust as quickly switching between bright light and dim. Older eyes already see less well in dim light and this makes things worse.
Cataracts and their resultant halo effect can also make bright lights even more blinding.
Keep your eyes on the road. Slow down. Move over. Avoid rubbernecking. I know that’s a lot to remember for us folks who tend to forget. But we gotta be safe out there if we’re going to have hope of blowing out those 100 birthday candles one day. Talk about a bright light!
Imagine too, how the quality of the rest of your life would change if you accidentally struck and killed an officer. “Hey, let’s be careful out there.” (Who remembers this from TV series, Hill Street Blues?)
Elder’s on a roll today. What’s your rant?
“Bene Vivere!”
ElderBob Schwarztrauber
