I've not wanted to participate in this, but I can't stay out:
Bruce Bellom wrote:
> Just to
> set the record straight, a police department will never
establish a quota and
> limit their officers to issuing a pre-set number of
summonses.....
Are you trying to say that the number of citations issued by an
officer is _never_ a criterion in evaluating his performance? If
so, that's just not true. It may not be universal or even common,
but it does happen.
> The reality to enforcement is to reduce the number of deaths
and serious
> personal injury accidents... The average motorist doesn't
realize that
> accidents do occur predominantely in specific areas,
I believe you sell us short. In my daily driving, I see many
spots where collisions are more likely. Common sense is quite
helpful in recognizing them in advance, but experience driving
the same route for years will always bear out common sense.
> where the roadway allows
> the driver to operate at a higher speed,
Not higher speed by itself. Blind intersections, poorly marked
turns, inadequate signage warning of an impending "this lane must
exit", inadequate signage for road construction, and high-traffic
side roads intersecting with boulevards are all major causal
factors in traffic accidents.
> but just the same that area of
> roadway experiences a higher number of accidents...
Some of the most open sections of highway are also the safest.
Only rarely is absolute speed the primary cause of an accident.
Higher speeds will make the consequences worse if an accident
does happen, but that's not cause, it's effect.
> If you could spend 1 month as a highway patrol officer, and
witness the
> suffering, pain and anguish that is caused by the horrendous
accidents that
> occur, you would understand why officers become very
pro-active..
I'm all for proactive enforcement of really dangerous driving
practices, including the following: putting on makeup while
driving, reading while driving, changing lanes without
signalling, turning without signalling, stopping at the bottom of
an onramp at the beginning of the acceleration lane, driving
slowly in the left lane while traffic passes you on the right,
carrying people (or animals, for that matter) in the bed of a
pickup truck, etc. In 32 years of driving, I have never seen any
of the above result in the offending driver being stopped,
whereas I have seen LOTS of drivers pulled over and ticketed for
8-10 mph over the speed limit on roads that were designed to
accommodate much higher speeds. You can't identify all the
dangerous drivers on the road with a nothing but radar (or laser)
gun. But you CAN write a hell of a lot more tickets that way.
I know that police officers have a very dangerous job, and they
are often not well-compensated or properly appreciated for doing
that job. But trying to claim that there are no speed traps or
that traffic tickets are _always_ issued for safety reasons just
has no credibility to anyone who has much experience on the road.
It ain't so.
Jay
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