Cop Sues Midvale After Police Car Hits His Motorcycle - A veteran Sandy police officer has filed a civil lawsuit against Midvale City after he was injured last spring when his personal motorcycle collided with a Midvale police car.

http://www.brainbucketmag.com/News/a.../sid=3222.html
http://www.americanbikernews.com/New.../sid=3222.html

 

Well now, how can the defendant be considered wreckless when he stopped at the intersection? True, he went through on a red but, he did have an emergency and his lights and siren were blaring!! The idiot who ignored all that is also a cop, and he doesn't have respect for the authority of another officer in an emergency situation, with lights and siren blaring? WTF kind of idiot is he anyway. I hope the jerk has to pay for the damage to the car he caused. Noname

 

What an arrogant a$$hat. If any civilian did what that off-duty cop did we'd have the book thrown at us. Hope justice prevails here.

 

+1 We are supposed to stop and wait for emergency vehicles coming through intersections with lights & sirens going, why shouldn't he?

 

dont be so quick to throw the motorcycle operator under the bus. there simply is not enough information in the article to determine who the idiot was.

as someone who works at signalized intersections everyday, i will tell you that the jury will be hearing about issues such as line-of-sight visibility, average approach speeds on the green light, etc...

was there emergency vehicle traffic signal preemption that was not functioning properly? did the cop responding to this call have a preemptive strobe in his vehicle that was not turned on or functioning?

was there a tractor trailer unit in an adjacent lane that obscured the motorcycle operators vision of the responding patrol car?

another thing to remember is this... the responding cop had the red light! just because they have lights and siren on does not mean they are not supposed to excerise caution when at traffic controls.

 

Any emergency vehicle must be sure at intersections/merging etc that the vehicle with the right of way did see the emergency vehicle and stopped. To do so the emergency vehicle must slow to a point that they can stop if needed.

 

[quote]ORIGINAL: trafficjams

dont be so quick to throw the motorcycle operator under the bus. there simply is not enough information in the article to determine who the idiot was.

I disagree. I think there is enough information given. The article said the cop in the car had his lights and siren blaring. He had a red, he stopped and then went through the intersection. Those lights and siren give the emergency vehicle the right of way. The off duty cop on the bike got himself hurt. He needs to be responsible for that. Noname

 

Exactly.........the operator of an emergency vehicle has the DUTY to insure that all traffic is stopped prior to entering an intersection, AND to be going slow enuff while entering that intersection, ,that he/she can stop if necessary. That is the way our pursuit and emergency operations manual reads, and most agency's policies are very similar. At the very least, the motorcyclist should have been able to hear the siren, even if he could NOT see the car....and if you hear a siren at or near an intersection, you should damn sure be very aware of the fact, that some sort of emergency vehicle may be preparing to enter the intersection.

I base my comments on the fact that I have been a sitting member of our accident/pursuit review board for the past 5 years.

 

[quote]ORIGINAL: noname

so... what happens at a railway grade crossing? is the train required to stop for the cruiser with its lights on? or does momentum prevent this? there is momentum even on a motorcycle. and as motorcyclists, how often do we bitch about those pulling out in front of us...

and just for the record... at a red light,strobe lightsand sirens DO NOT give a responding officer the complete right of way. he MUST still excercise caution and consider approaching speeds of vehicles in the conflicting movement.

 

Where I live we currently have a sherrifs deputy facing NegHomicide charges because(after outside investigation) while responding to a call he entered an intersection against the red and tboned a young lady. Speed at impact was estimated at 52 MPH(speed limit both ways is 25mph). Bearing in mind the visual obstructions at that intersection along with other traffic they did not see each other till approximately 1-1.5 seconds before impact. She died at impact. He is facing this charge because he did not enter the intersection exercising "due regard" (making sure that he could proceed safely) which is a state statute.
Many times while one can hear the siren from a distance standing in your front yard, how many really hear it till the emerg. vehicle is "right there" when your in or on your vehicle and then it is too late. Alot of the new squads also are the stealth(hidden lights and the siren is tucked under the hood) making it harder to see the lights and hear the siren. Wish they would go back to the big ole bars and put the siren on top of the car where it belongs. Course then they would have a hard time sneaking up on someone.