supercilious cop

[HotelMinion]

Quick quiz....
If you were driving and all the sudden you couldn't see anything at all thru the windshield. Nothing works. would you:

1. Continue driving
2. Stop, pull over as much has you can without crashing, turn on your emergency lights and get help.

I did 2 and this cop thought I should do 1. Um, no. Crashing will only drive my insurance rates up. He claimed I was blocking traffic. HE AND I WERE THE ONLY ONES THERE! (it was early weekend). I told him that I thought the emergency light were, you know in case of an emergency and he said NO WAY AND laughed! What do you all think? I've seen plenty of people stop and the cops just whiz by them.

[wolfie]

What happened to cut off visibility? Was it a fog bank, or something messing up your windshield? Looks like instead of whizzing by you, the cop (and Colonel Hammer would agree that he was a cop) whizzed on you (in the metaphorical sense).

[gerund]

I did 2 and this cop thought I should do 1. Um, no.

He sounds like a moron. I used to live in North Queensland where it rains in feet an hour. I saw a court case where a taxi driver was charged with driving without due care and attention. His defence was:-

"Your Honour, it was raining very hard and visibility was terrible. I could not see much beyond the end of my bonnet. The other car came out of nowhere and crashed into me. Even my fare said it would have been impossible for me to have seen the other car with the rain."

His honour said:-

"But that's what you have been charged with. You could not see and you kept driving."

The taxi driver did not understand and the Magistrate said that it was not his place to explain the ruling to the taxi driver and he should get legal advice as to what the charge meant. Then he fined him the maximum amount for that act.

The taxi driver was really upset, and stalked out of the court in a rage. I agreed with the Magistrate - he should have stopped driving if he could not see.

[Aragarthiel]

He was probably just upset that you made him wait to get his box-o-donuts.

[notalwaysright]

Now there's a cop with too much time on his hands... I don't get why the cop couldn't see why you stopped? I mean, if your windshield was covered in something like oil or whatever, he could see that. If it was weather, fog or snow, he could see that too!

[EricKei]

I told him that I thought the emergency light were, you know in case of an emergency and he said NO WAY AND laughed!

Wait, what?! That's exactly what the lights are for! Maybe it's time to give the precinct an anonymous call to inquire about that...

[dalesys]

Wait, what?! That's exactly what the (emergency) lights are for! ...

No, they're the Argabarga callers...

[HotelMinion]

It was raining and it was very cold, so ice had built up really quickly and my defrosters weren't strong enough to keep up with them. The cop informed me that I should have de iced my windshield before driving -- which I DID, I scraped and warmed up my car -- but the ice built up again I guess. I mean I couldn't see anything not even an inch in front of my car! And since I was in a residential neighborhood that has a lot of jaywalking early morning joggers and dogwalkers, I could have hit one flat. The chance of that was 99%. No way was I gonna take that chance!
I researched and asked others, none of them have heard of the law that says you can't stop in an emergency. I wasn't in any no parking zone either. I was late to work and all took me much longer than I would've been. Jeeeeez

[Gerrinson]

That happens to me a lot in the winter, actually. I get out, scrape my windows, and leave my house. We live in the shadow of the mountain, and it's often 2 - 4 degrees cooler at my house than the surrounding area.

Depending on the temp, humidity, and season when I get a 1/2 mile or so from my house, the entire window will just fog/frost right up again.

The cop was a moron. Did you by any chance think to ask for his badge number and the name of his commanding officer? If you were in a small town, you can probably call the station and they can figure who was out and about at that time. The cop needs a serious verbal smack down from his CO.

[sstabeler]

technically the cop was right in that the lights are called "hazard lights" for a reason- they are to warn of a hazard, not just a broken-down car- however, the cop was a dumbass because a windscreen that has iced over IS a hazard. To put it simply: if you can't see out of the windscreen whatsoever, how do you know you aren't about to hit a house/school/wherever?

[SumGuy]

At least in my part of the states, the number 1 rule of driving is "avoid an accident". It does not matter if the minimum is 45, if you can only safely drive at 15 due to conditions, doing what it takes to not, you know, crash and possibly kill someone takes precedence. If you need to swerve into an oncoming traffic lane (ideally one currently empty of traffic) to avoid some pedestrian jumping into the street, so be it. All other traffic laws bow before your primary responsibility of ensuring the safety of yourself and others. That's not just an ideal, that's on the books and an adequate legal defense.

So if stopping, standing, or parking was what you needed to do for safety reasons, even in a no parking / stopping / standing zone, so be it. Now, there is the potential for the argument that you did not do everything in your power- that you should have pulled off to the side if you could safely do so, or immediately gotten out / started doing something proactively to thaw the windshield, or whatever, but that does not seem to be the crux of his argument. In fact, it sounds like you did everything possible, and this is just a case of a cop not knowing the law, or it being different in your part of the world.

Heck, I've had a cop tell me that bicyclists are not allowed on the sidewalk (patently untrue around my parts), they're human and certainly not infallible. As long as there were no repercussions personally I'd brush it off to human error and feel good about having done the right thing, regardless of his opinion. But if you got a ticket, heck yes you should fight that.

[wolfie]

It was raining and it was very cold, so ice had built up really quickly and my defrosters weren't strong enough to keep up with them.

Be glad you weren't driving a commercial vehicle. Defroster unable to keep the windshield clear is an out-of-service condition - next time I'm at my truck I'll look up the exact wording.

[Chromatix]

technically the cop was right in that the lights are called "hazard lights" for a reason- they are to warn of a hazard, not just a broken-down car

In many cases, a broken-down car *is* a hazard - any time you come to a halt away from a recognised parking spot.

[HotelMinion]

No I didn't get a ticket, just a warning, but it still makes me angry ya know? :\
And I worry about what if it happens again?
The warning had the cop's name but I already threw it out away. :P BS belongs in trashcans. :P
Oh yeah and he said next time that I can't see that I should drive to a parking lot. HELLLLLOO? I . Can't See... He needs to go back to train.

[EricKei]

Drop an anonymous line to his precinct with the request that it go to the CO. With any luck, they'll mention something about it as a general thing in their regular briefings, not targeting any one officer.