The most dangerous factor in highway driving is relative velocity. It’s not speed that kills. It’s the difference in speed between you and the object you hit or that hits you. Say you bump your fender against a car traveling at nearly the same speed in the same direction … you won’t be hurt at all. When you spin out and collide with a stationary oak, that’s what hurts.
So, now imagine that you’re traveling along the highway at something near the mean speed for a major interstate, about 80 miles per hour. Suddenly, there’s a pack of cars in front of you blocking all lanes, moving 15 or 20 miles per hour slower than you. You see the problem.
As you spot this bunch of cars, you hit your brakes hard. What happens to the person behind you, who had been traveling at the same speed as you? You eventually get to the front of the pack, and you see that the whole clog has been caused by a highway patrol officer or sheriff’s deputy toodling along at 65.
We propose a solution.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect police to keep order on the highways. Police driving 70 miles per hour, or worse, 65, create disorder. They create blocs, hordes, pods of vehicles, traveling in packs, dangerous packs. The packs exist because drivers are understandably worried about getting tickets. It can be unsettling to pass a police car that’s traveling under the speed limit. Passing one traveling at or slightly over? Forget it.
Do you see police driving like this where you live? Are you tired of it?
The Stoneslide Corrective has lived in the states of
California
Connecticut
Georgia
Iowa
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
New Mexico
New York
Vermont
and Wisconsin
and has driven extensively in others, and we have observed this problem across the country.
Honest to goodness, in the interest of safety and sanity, every on-duty police officer driving on controlled-access roads should drive at least 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, but preferably 15 to 20. Police who refuse to take this simple step to enhance public safety should be subject to sanction. A citizens’ brigade of regular highway drivers might be empowered to give citations to sluggish cops. Perhaps police drivers could be fined for each mile per hour under 75 they’re driving, and accumulate points, and after a certain number be taken off the road. In order to patrol again, they would have to attend a special highway traffic school. That may sound harsh, but society can’t afford the risk of having drivers like that on the roads. Let’s make it safer and saner out there.
