Dumbest excuse

[Scruit]

What's the dumbest excuse a citizen has offered to you to explain a traffic infraction?

[txinvestigator1]

About to start my period

gotta pee, poop.

badly injured person at home. (offered to call an ambulance to their home, they declined :eek: )

I was patrolling a two lane road near a little beach inlet, not usually much traffic, but a place to dump stolen cars. This old beat up pickup appraoches from the other direction and as the guy gets close he reaches out of the drivers window and covers the inspection sticker with his hand. :rolleyes:

[Scruit]

I once was called by a friend to say his 16yo daughter had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere (just happened to be 3 miles from my house, and 25 from his) He was worried that she was alone and it was night etc. He asked me to go out and just make sure she was ok until he could get there the change the tire.

Knowing that a lone 16yo girl in the middle of nowhere is gonna be pretty scared and very vulnerable I told my friend to call her back and we agreed a singal that I would give her as I approached the vehicle.

I actually considered calling the police and asking if they'd just drive by to make sure she was ok until I got there, but decided against it as no crime had been comitted and no accident had occured. I headed out there at about 15mph over the 55 limit (nobody else on the roads).

I was thinking; "I'm gonna get pulled over here!" and had this excuse (well, mitigation) ready. I'm pretty sure it'd have sounded dumb telling this to the cops...

[Stump]

This isn't actually a "dumb" excuse....
But its fresh in my mind since it happened last night.
A copper (Brian) called out with a t-stop -- however, car wouldn't pull over. The pursuit was on. It didn't go that far, but crossed over into another town. The car finally pulled into a hospital, ran through some grass, and finally stopped, greeted by 6 police cars.
The person was bringing someone to the hospital that had cut his wrists. The funny thing was that an ambulance was going to that house at that time anyway because the father was having chest pain (had a heart attack when discovering the kid sliced and diced). So, the excuse wasn't good enough for Brian. The kid got a mental hygiene arrest, and the driver was ticketed for several things.
I swear people watch too much TV and think they can act like the people on it. They see people on TV rushing someone to the hospital, and if they get pulled over, get a police escort there.... they think they can run lights,etc, without any penalties if they are stopped... and the worst thing is - they think it is better to drive someone to the hospital as opposed to calling an ambulance to them!!!

[Scruit]

I saw on RealTV the other day a cop pulled over a speeding truck. The drive got out and tried to ask the officer for help because his wife was having a heart attack. The cop spent 5 minutes berating the driver for speeding before forcing him to drive at the speed limit the rest of the way by following him and threatening he'd be arrested if he sped again.

She died. :(

[Scruit]

Do the US have the concept of "Strict Liability" offences? Where there is no need to prove intent for a conviction to succeed?

In the UK if a guy puts a gun to your head and tell you to speed, then under UK Law you are guity of speeding and can be ticketed.

Can the defenses of "Duress" or "Necessity" be used against traffic tickets? Surely you can't give me a speeding ticket if I'm being chased by a man with a gun... ;)

[537]

I had a podiatrist (foot doctor) try to talk herself out of a parking ticket because she needed to be near her car in case a patient called with an emergency. Funny thing is, she was so far away from the car that I waited over 30 minutes for the wrecker to tow it off the travelled portion, and she never knew I was there, nor that the wrecker had pulled the car away.

Now my understanding of a podiatrist is a doctor that cuts toenails and removes callusus and warts. If you cut your toes off under the lawn mower (a true emergency), I don't know of anyone that would call their podiatrist for an after hours office visit instead of heading to the ER for help.

Who says that several initials behind your name means that you are smart?

[EricTheBald]

Originally posted by Scruit
I saw on RealTV the other day a cop pulled over a speeding truck. The drive got out and tried to ask the officer for help because his wife was having a heart attack. The cop spent 5 minutes berating the driver for speeding before forcing him to drive at the speed limit the rest of the way by following him and threatening he'd be arrested if he sped again.

She died. :(

If that happened to me, causing MY wife to die, I would kill that a-hole. For real.

[Zantar]

If it was my wife then I would have let him chase me all the way to the hospital and took my lumps later. There are some things worth getting in trouble over.

[Scruit]

In the VERY unlikely cir***stance I was in that situation where I couldn't contact 911 for help and I had a car I would drive to the hospital as quickly as is warranted. If the person next to me is quickly dying then when I pulled over for the officer I would immediately tell him it was a medical emergency and to get an ambulance. If he didn't roll EMT to our location within 30 secs I'd be back in my car heading to the hospital again. Let him follow me. I would hope that he lets e get to the hospital before deploying the spike strips unless I drive so reacklessly as to immediately endanger the lives of other people.

I'll take the speeding/reckless driving/eluding rap if I get to keep my wife alive.

I can write to her from jail, she can't write to me from heaven.



(in the case I quoted RealTV reported that state law gave him immunity from a civil suit, and an IA investigation found that he acted properly and didn't discipline him. I'm trying to reserve judgement on how good that ruling was because the RealTV report was biased and we didn't get his side of the story. Citing "Conduct Unbecoming of a Police Officer" the officer was subsequently fired from the force as a result of an unrelated incident. I believe this was in Georgia circa '92 - Looked like a statie. Why he didn't roll EMT we'll never know. Why the civillian didn't insist until his dying breath that the officer roll EMT instead of standing there for 5mins accepting the verbal barrage with "yes sir, sorry sir" then driving at the limit to the hospital is also a mystery)

[gdowkpc]

I was running RADAR on a busy street that cuts through a neighborhood when a guy came barreling through. I stopped him and he has a suspended license (a violation, not crime, in Oregon).

He said his wife was in labor and was taking her to the hospital. To me she only looked 8 months, but who can tell. I followed them to the hospital to make sure he was telling the truth. When they got there, they grabbed a wheelchair and checked in through the E.R.

A security guard came up and asked what was going on, so I told him, then left. 1/2 hour later he called me and said the couple left. I was pissed, so I mailed the ticket to their last known DMV address.

Another officer said he stopped someone who claimed the passenger was having a heart attack. He called an ambulance to the scene and determined she was faking.

[Stump]

Not that anybody here has said they has driven someone to the hospital that needed medical assistance, but...
That is the worst thing you could do in that situation. If you are not next to a phone, don't have a cell phone,or absolutely have no way of calling, drive to the nearest pay phone and call.
A)There is no way emt's can help if your car breaks down on the side of the road, or the person goes into cardiac arrest. You cannot drive and perform necessary first aid. If you don't have a cell phone, you have no way of calling them.
B) If you DO get on the highway/roadway, the odds of you knowing your location are much less than if you were stationary. Add to that the stress of dealing with a person dying in the seat next to you.... people just completely break down and can barely say their name sometimes.

That tv show, well, I didn't see it.. (but keep in mind it could be edited too). That officer should have started the paramedics once he knew. Did you actually see the whole exchange, or was it a summarization of what happened? I have never seen RealTV.

[Officer Moe]

Originally posted by Stump
This isn't actually a "dumb" excuse....
But its fresh in my mind since it happened last night.
A copper (Brian) called out with a t-stop -- however, car wouldn't pull over. The pursuit was on. It didn't go that far, but crossed over into another town. The car finally pulled into a hospital, ran through some grass, and finally stopped, greeted by 6 police cars.
The person was bringing someone to the hospital that had cut his wrists. The funny thing was that an ambulance was going to that house at that time anyway because the father was having chest pain (had a heart attack when discovering the kid sliced and diced). So, the excuse wasn't good enough for Brian. The kid got a mental hygiene arrest, and the driver was ticketed for several things.
I swear people watch too much TV and think they can act like the people on it. They see people on TV rushing someone to the hospital, and if they get pulled over, get a police escort there.... they think they can run lights,etc, without any penalties if they are stopped... and the worst thing is - they think it is better to drive someone to the hospital as opposed to calling an ambulance to them!!!

My mom "rushed" my dad to the hospital when he had his heart attack and that was the best thing for him. Unfortunately, sometimes medical help can take longer to get where they need to be (as in the case of our county "buses") than it would to load 'em up at home and drive them there yourself. I've seen our ambulances whiz by code 3 and moments later see them again code 3 in the opposite direction, lost out of their mind.

[JayE]

Guys, You are going to like this one....

At about 11:45 at night, I was pulled over for speeding copming home from work late at night after work. I was in the Culinary Arts Vocationsal Class, my teachers's husban owned an catering company, I reguraly worked for him and the jobs went late into the night on the weekends.

I beleive that the officer told me that he clocked me 40 in a 30.

He said "Do you know why I pulled you over ?" "What reason do you have for speeding?"

I said, (pointing to the gas station about 500 feet away), " I was trying to get get to the gas station before they closed at midnight, I am almost on empty."

He then said " Sir, dont you think that the faster you go, the more fuel you use? Anyway that gas station is open 24 hours."

[gdowkpc]

I think all ambulances should have paramedics onboard like they do in Portland, OR. They can bring that bus to your front door and do pretty much everything a doctor is gonna do to you in an E.R. to stabilize you.

Because of this...nobody has that excuse in Portland to rush someone to the hospital...but it's off the topic.