Recently, we received an article from Detective Robert R. Surgenor, Sr., of the Berea, Ohio Police Department. I hope you will find it as compelling as I did:
AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION
While on patrol early one morning on one of our main streets, I observed the railroad gates going down at one of the train crossings. The lights were flashing and the bells were ringing. As I approached the gates, I observed a red Corvette approaching the crossing from the opposite direction. The vehicle stopped at the crossing and waited. I observed the front tires turn to the left, and with horror, I watched the vehicle begin to accelerate around the gates. The train was nearing the crossing, and the engineer blew his horn frantically as the car spun its tires over the tracks. The rear of the car just cleared the crossing as the train sped past.
I performed a u-turn behind the Corvette as it passed me and activated my overhead lights. The driver was a young girl with a male sitting next to her. When I walked up to the car, the young man leaned over and said, “It’s my fault officer. I told her to do it.” Although I really dislike the “would you jump off a cliff ” analogy, in this case I used it. The man, obviously upset with the inconvenience of being detained on a beautiful morning, began arguing with me and suggesting that I should be looking for real criminals. The young lady quietly handed me her driver’s license with tears in her eyes. It appeared that she was shaken a great deal by her close call with the large diesel locomotive. I went back to the cruiser and wrote the girl a citation, motivated not only by the girl’s reckless act, but also by the boyfriend’s big mouth. When I handed the girl her ticket, she quietly thanked me with tears in her eyes and slowly drove on her way.
It was almost one year later, while patrolling the city in the cruiser, that I received a radio call from dispatch to return to the station. There was a female in the lobby who wished to speak to me. When I walked into the lobby, I recognized the girl’s face, but could not remember where I had seen her. She asked me if I remembered her in her red Corvette with her loud mouth boyfriend. I immediately recalled the incident and wondered why this young lady had come back a year later to discuss her ticket. It was at that point that the girl’s bottom lip began to tremble. She looked much more familiar as tears began to well up in her eyes.
I just wanted to thank you for giving me that ticket last year,” she said. She smiled when she saw the amazed look on my face. Very seldom did anyone thank me for a traffic ticket, much less one year after the fact. The girl continued. “I just wanted you to know that I was sitting at the railroad crossing on Sterns Road yesterday…” Before she said another word, I knew what she was going to tell me. I had received news that morning that several teenagers had been killed at that crossing the previous day. The teenagers had driven around closed crossing gates and had been hit by a train. All of the young people in the car were killed immediately.
The girl in the lobby wept as she described what happened. “I was the first car at the crossing,” she explained. “When a slow eastbound train cleared the crossing and the gates stayed down, I turned my wheels to go over the tracks. It was then that I thought to myself, ‘I wonder if there’s a cop sitting on the other side of this crossing. That’s all I need is another two hundred dollar fine!’ So I stopped.” The girl described the carload of teenagers behind her, blowing the horn and encouraging her to either go across the tracks or get out of their way. She explained how she motioned them to go around.
Her description of the look of horror on the young girl’s face in the back seat of that car as she saw the train approaching from the opposite direction was vivid. She tried to explain to me her feelings as she watched the train slam into the side of the car and drag it hundreds of yards down the track. The tears ran down her face as she told me how she would never forget the screams that came from the car as it disappeared in front of the diesel locomotive. The girl then looked at me and said, “If you hadn’t given me that ticket, that would have been me!” She went on to explain how the consequence of her violation a year ago kept her from violating the law again. Her perception of the police officer’s ability to punish her for her irresponsible action deterred her from re-committing the offense. This time, it saved her life!
It’s not often we realize how those traffic citations we issue impact those motorist’s lives. This is one time I actually felt that I had done a good thing by giving that young woman a ticket. I had a completely different perspective about writing up a violator from that point on.
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Have a great day!
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