I was working third shift one
winter evening on a day we have received quite a lot of snow and ice. Many cars were experiencing difficulties
making it up several hills on streets in my area of patrol.
At around 9:00 PM while I was
driving along one of our four lane street that had several hills I
observed two cars stuck trying to get up one of the hills People were behind
each of the cars attempting to push them up the hill. I pulled my patrol
car behind the stuck cars with my overhead emergency lights on in an effort to
protect the people pushing from being hit from behind.
I got out of the car and
helped push first the lead car then the second car. Technically we were not supposed to help push
cars, something related to workers comp. Guess occasionally I was a rebel because I
thought my job was to protect and serve, Just sitting on my ass in the car
while I watched someone wait for and pay for a wrecker was not my idea of serving
or service
After we managed to get both
cars up the hill I walked back to my car, got in and buckled up; then as I was
reaching for the shift handle and the emergency light switch I was struck hard from behind. My head was thrown
back causing my hat to fly off and my body lurched forward within the constraint
of the seat belt/shoulder harness.
I immediately unbuckled
myself and looked for my hat and observed it on the deck behind the backseat. I
decided not to get it despite the cold temperatures because I wanted to check
on the driver of the vehicle that struck me. As I walked briskly to the car
behind mine I noticed my overhead emergency lights were still on. I did not
have the opportunity to turn them off before I was struck. The driver told me she didn’t have any
experience driving in snow. She said when she realized she was getting close to
the flashing red lights she tried to stop, but instead of stopping her car
started sliding on the snow and ice.
Because it was an accident
involving an officer we had an officer from another police department work the
accident. The driver didn’t want to be transported to the hospital in an
ambulance, but my supervisor and the officer working the accident insisted. We had to “cover all our bases” because a
civilian could have possibly been injured in an office-involved accident. Her
car sustained minor damage to the left front quarter panel, which caused it to
rub the left front tire making it non drivable. My patrol car only had a few scratches to the
rear bumper.
I thought I was okay, and not
injured in any way. After about thirty minutes had passed my neck became
extremely still and sore, as was my chest, both apparently from the hard
impact. I went into the station and notified my supervisor that I thought I
should go to the hospital and get myself checked and receive something for the
stiffness and pain.
I was driven to the hospital
by one of the other officers. At the emergency room while waiting to be
seen by a doctor, the officer working the accident came by to obtain
additional information for his report.
He had been there getting additional information from the driver. He
told me the driver had never driven on snow or ice before and she had only been
driving for a few weeks. She also told the officer that when she saw she was
going to hit the police car she thought that to be an emergency and she pulled
the emergency brake and started to slide.
The emergency room gave me
some muscle relaxers and told me to wear a cervical collar and rest at home for
two days and not go to work.
I contacted the department
and an officer picked me up at the hospital and took me home. I left my
personal vehicle in the department parking lot until a fiend could pick it up
the next day.
The accident was never discussed
with me. Not sure how the ambulance, hospital bills and minor damage to the
cars got fixed, but it was out of my hands.
The driver discussed above
was from another country that didn’t have snow and ice. If you recall in a
previous post I discussed drivers involved in accidents in snow and ice
that were from states that did not have those weather conditions. My thought is
make part of the driving test for states which receive snow and ice have a
simulator that can test the potential driver’s driving skills on snow and
ice. Fortunately, in the examples I
mentioned no one was hurt, but that isn’t always the case. Is my proposal
feasible? Yes, it would cost money, but can we put a price tag on human lives?
Until Tomorrow,
Sally S
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