Police Stories

This event occurred during the second last week of January 2001. I had just walked into the office at 5:40 am for my first of three dayshifts. It was snowing and had been all night. I couldn't help but think on the way to work that the usual winter driving shenanigans would be taking place and I'd be spending most of the morning calling tow trucks for cars off in the rhubarb. Naturally, as I walked into the constables office, the phone was ringing. Only one person would call at that time of day during a shift change, the dispatcher. She told me there was a collision involving a car on Highway 401 eastbound between Nagle Road and Eagleson Road.

I was rounding the bend on eastbound Highway 401, about two kilometers east of Nagle Road and I noticed taillights in the center median. The 401 in this area is four lanes wide, with two east and two west. It has a wide grass median and is posted 100 km/h. I stopped behind the stranded car and activated my roof lights and strobes. The driver approached me and said that there was no collision, he had slid off of the highway and partially into the median ditch. A tow truck was ordered and I was about to get back into my police car when a guy walked up to me and said his car was in the ditch. I looked west down the highway and didn't see anything. It was still dark and unless the car had lights on, I wouldn't be able to see. We walked across the eastbound lanes and looked down an eight foot embankment. Sure enough, there was a car down there. I let the driver wait in my police car until the tow truck arrived. He explained to me how he couldn't understand why his SUV went into the ditch, with it being four wheel drive and all. I was just too tired to try and tell yet another SUV owner that four wheel drive doesn't stop or steer any better than two wheel drive, it just gets you out of the ditch after you've wiped out.

A short while later, a tow truck arrived and pulled the first car out of the median. Traffic was beginning to pick up as 7:00 am rolled around. With the first car on its way, we had to move to the south side of the highway and close the driving lane. I parked my police car partially on the south shoulder and partially on the driving lane. I then laid flares down for over a quarter mile. My light package was going full tilt and the strobes alone were bright enough to land aircraft. Eastbound traffic had over a half mile to round the curve in the highway and see the flares and my car, up near the tow truck. Now, you would think that with all the flares, the flashing red lights, the highway reduced to one lane and the bad weather would slow traffic down. Nope. Cars and trucks were blasting through at a 100 Km/h or better. Yeah it was all fun and games until I saw a two tractor trailers coming eastbound in the driving lane, one in front of the other. The lead truck was apparently upsetting the one behind it by slowing for the hazard ahead. To my amazement, the unit following behind pulled out for the pass. I was standing in front of my police car on the shoulder and told the driver of the SUV beside me to "Watch this!"

Now, I honestly thought that the driver had maybe somehow not seen the flares, lights, etc. and would slow down. Instead, the driver powered up to complete his pass. As the unit entered the lane restriction, the driver finally thought a speed reduction might be in order and threw out the anchor. The trailer started to jackknife and swing out in line with my police car. Now, I have a pretty good sense of humor, but the Queen and I weren't amused. (Our cars are registered to the Queen.) I was about to jump down the embankment until it occurred to me that my car, followed closely by the wayward trailer, would likely be right behind me. So I stayed where I was, thinking that I could just duck as the trailer passed over me. Hey it seemed reasonable at the time. You'd be surprised what goes through you're mind when you only have two or three seconds to think about it. Any way, the driver released his brakes and the unit straightened out with little space between the trailer and my car. Unfortunately I didn't get the name off of the side of the truck. I guess the gods were smiling on him.

There are a few messages in this story, but there are two in particular I want to get across. The first is that when you are driving and see emergency lights, slow down. I've had drivers almost hit my police car before and when I ask them what they were thinking they almost always give the same answer. They didn't know the police car was in the lane. They thought it was on the shoulder. That's right, you can't always tell where on the road an emergency vehicle is. So when you see the lights flashing, "Slow Down!!"

The other point is that the weather doesn't cause collisions. My Ford Crown Victoria police car with its rear wheel drive, handling package and wide tires should be all over the road, if anything would be. Yet, I often have to respond to calls at high speed in bad weather. My police car not only stays on the road, but it doesn't fishtail, do a 180, slide into the other lane, hit another vehicle, or any of the other wild things that happen to the people for whom I have to call tow trucks. Almost every time I arrive on scene, the driver says the same thing. It was the weather, snow, black ice or some other unforeseen peril of winter. Well, if it's winter, these things should be expected, shouldn't they? Is there really anyone driving out there who doesn't know snow and ice are slippery? Lets not forget that the police officer you're telling your story to just drove down the same road you did. So are all the other vehicles driving past you while you're in the ditch. As for truckers who like to say they don't have to go slow because they're "loaded heavy", the weight may give you traction to get going but it doesn't stop you.

EDITOR'S NOTE #1: I want you all to know that as I post this, I am on my feet, yelling, "BRAVO!" and applauding wildly! He's right! The weather doesn't cause crashes! Additionally, most of the other excuses that people like to use for crashes are equally as lame. What then, causes crashes? DUH! It's bad, dangerous, reckless, aggressive and stupid driving habits! Slow down, stop tailgating and be more careful!

The incident I'm about to describe took place on the eastbound Highway 401 in Hope Township, Northumberland County during the summer of 2000. I received a call to attend the scene of a tractor trailer rollover in the center median. This section of Highway 401 was four lanes with two eastbound and two westbound, the center median is a narrow grass ditch approximately seven feet across. The weather on this evening was quite nice with a mild breeze, clear sky and excellent visibility.

I arrived on scene and the 401 was backed up for over two kilometers in each direction. A large Freightliner was on it's driver side in the median with the roof of one of the two trailers it was pulling partially blocking the passing lane on the westbound side. The last trailer was partially in the median and partially in the eastbound passing lane. Only the tractor and first trailer actually rolled onto their side. The tractor's day cab was twisted at a nasty angle to the point where it was facing the passenger side of the frame. Most of the hood on the passenger side was missing, all of the accessories on that side of the engine were ripped off and mangled and the front passenger side wheel was completely torn away. There was a large deep score along the side of the engine block which told me the truck had suffered some real trauma. Amazingly the driver of the unit was standing on the highway speaking with another truck driver. Paramedics had already looked him over and gave him a clean bill of health. Although he had no physical injury, it was obvious he was in a mild state of shock. Another tractor trailer was stopped in the eastbound passing lane beside the crashed unit. At first glance I thought he observed the unit enter the median and stopped to help. When I looked the other unit over I noticed the guard on the trailer was pushed in on the driver side, the lights were missing, the outside tandems were both flat and there was a large amount of paint transfer.

The investigation revealed the two trucks were traveling in the eastbound passing lane, one in front of the other. Traffic in the driving lane was slowing due to a construction zone farther ahead and being summer, there was a large volume of traffic. It is interesting to note that neither of the units involved in the collision were speeding. Unfortunately, it didn't take a lot of speed for what happened that night. The unit in the ditch was following behind the other unit at between 70 to 80 km/h when the lead unit had to hit the air as traffic came to a sudden halt. The driver in the following unit did the same, but was so close there was no way he was ever going to stop. This information soon became apparent to the driver and he decided to steer for the median ditch rather than rear end the truck ahead of him. As fate would have it, he accomplished both. The front passenger side of the tractor struck the rear driver side of the lead unit's trailer as the tractor entered the ditch in the median. A combination of the impact and the slope of the ditch caused the unit to roll onto the driver side. Had a passenger been sitting in the tractor, they wouldn't have survived the impact.

The moral of this story is to leave some space between your vehicle and the one ahead of you. I don't know how many times I've heard guys say “trucks don't stop on a dime”. They usually say it in relation to a four wheeler that cut in front of them. What they don't like to acknowledge is that the same physics apply when they are tailgating.

This incident occurred in the spring of 2000 on Highway 401 in Hope Township, Northumberland County. This section of Highway 401 is four lanes with two eastbound and two westbound and is level and straight. It was late evening and the driver was stopped in the westbound driving lane of the 401 about 40 feet from the Deer Park Road underpass with his dump truck. The driving lane was closed due to ongoing construction.

I was called to this location because of a collision that had occurred involving a dump truck. When I arrived on scene I saw a large object in the passing lane that was standing on end and the same height as the Deer Park Road Bridge. It had some kind of tarp draping down it and at first glance I thought it was some kind of scaffolding. The truck was facing westbound and in the center median with what appeared to be little damage. It had come to an abrupt halt in the median because the ground was extremely soft. The driver of the truck was in the back of an ambulance and was just leaving. He was apparently hurt fairly badly. I thought it odd at first that he would be injured by just going into the mud and there was almost no skid mark to indicate hard braking.

After the investigation it was determined that the driver was stopped in the closed westbound driving lane. He had just finished dumping a load of asphalt into a paving machine. After oiling the inside of the dump box the driver thought he activated the lever to lower it. He pulled into the live passing lane and was just getting up to speed when he attempted to go under the Deer Park Road Bridge. As it turned out the dump box was still high in the air and hit the east side of the bridge. The force of the collision actually lifted the front end of the truck off of the ground until the hinges at the rear of the frame gave away and the box detached from the truck. The driver was reminded of a basic law of physics. What goes up must come down. The front of the truck came down with quite a bit of force and it was this that caused the drivers injuries. Coming to rest in the median was actually a fairly low speed impact. Most of the trucks momentum was absorbed in the collision with the bridge. The dump box was standing on its rear end leaning up against the bridge. The 401 westbound was closed for about two hours while the investigation and clean up was conducted.

The end result was the driver of the truck was charged, sustained injuries, damaged his truck, could have caused structural damage to the overpass and came close to killing the driver of a car traveling behind him in the passing lane. The car driver left lots of room because he noticed the dump still up.

1/17/00 In the spring of 2000, on highway 401, in Northumberland County, Ontario, it was midmorning and the driver was traveling eastbound in the driving lane with a container, full of lumber. This section of Highway 401 was on a gradual curve and with the sun rising, visibility was, at times, difficult. To make matters worse, the passing lane was closed due to construction of a jersey barrier in the median. Being a construction zone, the speed limit was reduced to 80 km/h by posted signs.

I was called to this location because of a collision that had occurred involving a tractor trailer. When I arrived, I saw a large Kenworth and shipping container on its driver side, blocking both eastbound lanes, the gravel shoulder and partly into the ditch. I also observed a large four wheel drive front end loader with severe trauma to the rear end.

After the investigation, it was determined that the truck was traveling in the 80 km/h construction zone at a minimum of 110 km/h. This was determined by how far the unit traveled on its side. The driver was negotiating the curve and found that the sun was partially obstructing his view. Rather than slow down, he decided to press on. Through his limited vision, he noticed the large front end loader moving and thought it was pulling into the lane in front of him. Unfortunately, it was actually moving from the median to the closed passing lane.

Our driver in question swerved drastically to the shoulder and his passenger side wheels dropped off onto the gravel shoulder. The driver felt the truck list toward the passenger side, and in a panic, overcorrected by sharply steering back onto the highway. Realizing his day was about to get worse, the driver steered sharply toward the shoulder to prevent the unit from tipping onto its passenger side. What happened was similar to a catapult effect. The unit's rebound from a passenger side list, the load-shift, combined with the sharp turn basically dumped the truck on its driver side. The forward momentum kept the unit moving while on it's side and it began a slow rotation as it slid.

A construction worker operating the front end loader was doing his best to outrun the wayward truck . Unfortunately, the 10 ton loader goes from 0 to 60 in the time it takes most of us to get a good night's sleep. The shipping container hit the loader so hard it almost rolled over a concrete barrier. Fuel from the ruptured tanks spilled into the ditch and drained all the diesel out of the truck. No one died, although the truck driver did suffer some nasty head injuries. The loader operator wasn't hurt much, but he no longer thinks his machine is invincible.

The end result was the driver of the truck was charged, sustained injuries, wrote his tractor off (he was a broker), destroyed a shipping container, spilled a large quantity of diesel (detox submitted a large bill), could have killed any number of construction workers walking about and paid a tidy sum to the insurance company.

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