Im aware of the traffic rule that if you come upon an emergency vehicle parked on the right shoulder of the road, you are required to either pull over into the next lane to the left or slow down.
But I am under the impression this only applies when the emergency vehicle has its flashing light on, or otherwise how one will be able to see?
To make matter worse, the video above shows a huge truck driving pass a police SUV while stopped on the right shoulder of an interstate highway.
Is it not common sense that huge trucks can’t stop or slow down quickly due to their weights ? They can’t leisurely switch lanes either due to their lengths.
So my question is: what did the police expect from the trucker in the video shown above ?
I agree with @davesmopar ,
At least the officer waited until the truck passed to pull back in to traffic instead of pulling in front of the truck and possibly causing an accident.
This may differ from one state to another, but in my state you’re supposed to change lanes or drastically slow down when there is a parked emergency vehicle, whether its lights are flashing, or not
Most drivers will move one lane to the left for ANY vehicle on the shoulder. It’s just common sense. Now if I’m in the right lane but I can’t move over I’ll slow down a little and put on my hazards.
I was pulled over by a state trooper couple years ago for the exact same infraction.
I explained to the trooper that it was risky to change lane and that I didn’t want to slow down in fear the semi truck behind me would rear end me.
The trooper was pleased with my explanation and said he wanted to make sure if I had seen him. I was given no tickets nor warnings.
But I still beg the question: shouldn’t police officers check to see if a driver can safely pull over or slow down before chasing him/her down to issue a ticket ?
How would he/she “check”?
After the fact, this is something that would not be provable, unless the cop had video of your vehicle before, during, and immediately after the alleged incident. You’re lucky that he accepted your excuse.
Semi’s are no joke. I learned this when first started driving on public roads.
I recall as an amateur driver about 2 decades ago pulling in front of a semi on the highway after overtaking it and moving back into the right lane and suddenly a car in front of me braked up and the semi started flashing its headlights then abruptly switched lanes to avoid rear ending me.
I was about 3 or 4 car length away from the truck and it couldn’t stop like a normal car or suv could.
From then, I don’t trust semi’s when they are traveling behind me.
It’s a good policy to move over for any parked car if you seen the door all of a sudden swing open and someone pop out. I don’t believe it is mandatory in Minnesota for any non emergency vehicle. Unless they have their lights flashing though it will be very hard to tell if it’s a police car until you are very close. In a semi though it can take quite a while for a clear path to pull over. Minnesota just says to pull over or slow down.
The truck also failed to slow? How close did the truck get to your vehicle?
The officer could have stopped the truck driver, but he chose you. Apparently by that time there was enough space between your car and the truck for the patrol car.
I assume it was about 3-4 car length behind. Or could be more. My fear for semi is real, so just knowing one is behind me is enough to raise my anxiety.
I always try to get away from semi’s but it’s hard doing so on I-84 as they are so many of them on there.
Traffic was in the middle lane so I wasn’t able to switch over. The truck couldn’t switch either. However, the vehicle in front of me did switch over as there was no car traveling next to it.
A quick glimpse in the side mirror showed a car right next to me, then I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a semi.
