Model Citizenship

So, how nervous do you get when a police officer is driving right behind you? What feelings surface when you are motoring along, minding your own business (being nothing but a complete Model Citizen) and you look in your rearview mirror to find a good ‘ole black and white on your six? No matter how good your driving skills are; despite the fact that you know you have adhered to the entire applicable vehicle code, you cannot fight-off the nervous feeling….you know this to be true! You turn down your radio, sit up straight, grab the wheel at 10 and 2 and start praying for the police officer to pass you by. This story, I believe, is a direct result of that nervousness.

As I was on my way home the other evening, I was stopped at a red light at the intersection of MacArthur and Fairchild waiting to turn left onto MacArthur. As I looked to the left, I noticed a car moving rather slowly to the North on MacArthur in the right-hand lane. As the car approached the intersection, it moved into the left lane. It was at this point that the police motorcycle (depicted as a car in the picture) came into view, slowly trailing the car with lights flashing. As the car broke the plane of the intersection, the driver came to virtually a complete stop (in the fast lane, mind you) and abruptly executed a U-Turn. Just one problem here - the intersection is clearly marked with a NO U-TURN sign! After executing the u-turn, she slowed and eventually pulled-over.

Was this a case of extreme nervousness? Was she in shock - suffering from delusions as a result of the flashing lights??? Whatever the case, not only did she likely make her situation much worse as far as traffic laws are concerned, she risked the lives of complete strangers in the oncoming cars.

While most of us would agree that nervousness resulting from being pulled-over is understandable, it is likely that none of us would condone irrational, reckless behavior like this… Drivers oblivious to the rest of the world; definitely not Model Citizens!

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