U-turning cops - quite common

[Patrick]

yesterday i was a couple of cars back from a cop, he desides to put on his lights, then instead of doing a u turn he pulls left so we all think cool hes pulling over, then cuts us off and then u turns, we all had to slam our breaks on.
all this for a loaded truck climbing a hill, to put three cars in danger, to catch a truck who was hardley going to do a runna.

what a dick head, the road was real wide too.
this seems all to common, i dont trust thos bastards now.
if your a cop think about the inocent before you go after your quota.
its the 2nd time its happened to me lately.

Make a complaint.

Some have no idea how to turn and go after someone safely. They learn real fast when ther errors are pointed out to them.

The dept will charge em....

That's no excuse. I'm sure if you turn you head like your meant to, you can see your blind spot. Too bad hardly anyone does this.

True. The new common whores have real bad absolutely shocking blind spots, even turning the head to look isn't good enough.

There wouldn't be these blind spot problems if the cops had proper cars eh Scummy? Like Ford Mustangs for all - Yayeee!

Convertable please... no blind spots... and major chick magnet!!!!

[ElCoyote]

I hope you apply that line of thought to the public too???

I do actually SD and that's why I commented. Professionals should know their trade and committing an offence to prosecute an offence is disappointing. Surely the advanced driver training should have instilled some commonsense I would have thought. Perhaps a return to the good old days of cops advancing from motorbikes to cars would see this scenario change. Meanwhile they seem to be no different to the average Joe Public and that's sad.

[fatzx10r]

had a cop do a u turn on a dodgy single lane bit of motorway in dunedin once just to give me a speeding ticket. sure i should'nt of been doing 20kph over the speed limit. but where he did the u turn was fuckin dangerous, it was after 4pm so the traffic was starting to get heavy. he was a smart mouth prick to and did'nt like it when i told him what i thought of him, and that next time he should'nt waste his turning around after me cause i won't stop

[cs363]

I do believe the patrol cars have some serious blind spots tho, and this comes from those using them.

Yeah, it's hard to see behind properly with one eye......

It's a shame that some (not all) cops are so hell bent on issuing speeding tickets (usually very minor infringements) to the exclusion of all else, including safe driving practices.
I wish the focus would move from blaming speed for everything and that they would focus more on bad driving habits which seem to be getting worse by the day. By this I am referring to things like following too closely, failing to give way, failing to indicate etc....
(rant ends....for now)

[NC]

They are people, people make mistakes. Whata concept.

[sinfull]

In my book, if a cop ahead of me were to throw his lights on it tells me he just pinged someone coming the other way (not in this case perhaps) and he is obviously gonna do a u turn, hell he may even fool the odd driver into thinking he's going to pull to the left (with lights on ?) when he gives himself the room to swing the uturn in one motion ! Me i'd be waiting for the u turn to happen, not speeding up to overtake him !
Get heart rate up a little did he lol and you don't do that to yrself on the bike ?

[cs363]

In my book, if a cop ahead of me were to throw his lights on it tells me he just pinged someone coming the other way (not in this case perhaps) and he is obviously gonna do a u turn, hell he may even fool the odd driver into thinking he's going to pull to the left (with lights on ?) when he gives himself the room to swing the uturn in one motion ! Me i'd be waiting for the u turn to happen, not speeding up to overtake him !
Get heart rate up a little did he lol and you don't do that to yrself on the bike ?

While I tend to agree with you as that's how I would treat the situation, it's an interesting scenario as there does not seem to be any advisory in the road code as to what a driver/rider should do in the case that an emergency vehicle in front of you turns its flashing lights on.
I think the onus should still be on the poilce officer to signal his intentions using his indicators, not just turning on the red & blues and thinking that's an excuse to whatever he feels like to the possible detriment of other road users.
After all, they should be setting an example shouldn't they?

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

All very well saying what you would do if you were behind him what about the poor buggers on the sides!
I saw this the other day:-
Pulled up at trafic light controlled crossroads at the front of the cue. In the cue opposit two cars back was a cop in a cage. Our lights were red.
A cage clearly cut it fukin close running the red light from my right, cop hits the lights and pulls a smokin 'U' turn. Unfortunatly for the guy in the filter lane entering that same bit of road same smoking copper is now in has no choice but to hit the anchors and mount the curb!! Good job there were no pedestrians stood there eh!

The car the cop was after had turned into a car park so wasnt going anywhere so there was no need for the Starsky & Hutch heroics.

Dont get me wrong the red light jumper deserves to get fukin nicked (I fukin hate the dangerous bastards) but not at the risk the cop was prepared to put others at.

[bully]

yer kinda my whole point, if your in the wrong you probley should get a ticket. but not at the risk of others!
yes other than speed there is alot of bad drivers.
in my case i was excpecting the bad cop driving coz it was, but i was back a couple of cars, the guy behind him was the worse off. and he had his lights on it just seemed he was gunna use his head and pull left to let us past, but at the last minute pulled right out accross us, it was a wide road and the loaded truck wasnt going far. for a proffesonal driver he should know better.

iv tryed doing a complaint before, you give them the details but they dont really care, protecting there own, its just a waste of time.
i know its a big game and cops like a chase, but do it safely, think of others, is it really worth it? they should be the pro, set an example.
oh yer quit trawling at 80 kmph for your quota and stop holding traffic up too.
i know your not all bad, but i seldom see a good one.

there i feel better now. lol.

[KiwiRat]

Make a complaint.

Some have no idea how to turn and go after someone safely. They learn real fast when ther errors are pointed out to them.

The dept will charge em....



True. The new common whores have real bad absolutely shocking blind spots, even turning the head to look isn't good enough.



Convertable please... no blind spots... and major chick magnet!!!!

Patrick, Patrick, Patrick.

What's with the considered, reasonable reply buddy? (p/t)

This just unacceptable.

+1 on your last comment, by the way.

[KiwiRat]

They are people, people make mistakes. Whata concept.

You will get banned talkin' like that mate.

[idleidolidyll]

those red flashing lights often accompanied by a siren mean "stop or get the fuck out of the way and stay there until I'm gone"

same in any country i know of

[Swoop]

Taking a guess here, but surely the police would be the most prevalent users of the "U-turn" in NZ?
Would there not be some form of extensive training to drive this point home when they are at Porirua?

[Grub]

Good luck with overtaking a cop car with lights flashing, only a fool would do that

Good Point!!!!

I'm not sure what the rules are, but I have always taken them to mean ... be prepared to stop. Instead people just barrel past

[cs363]

those red flashing lights often accompanied by a siren mean "stop or get the fuck out of the way and stay there until I'm gone"

same in any country i know of

http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/roa...g-signals.html << Nothing in there about what the procedure is when the Police/Emergency vehicle is in front of you. I stand by my point that the onus should be on the Police car to indicate it's intentions in this instance.
You are totally correct regarding a Police car coming up behind you or heading towards you though. As the rules seem unclear on this point I would think there is even more reason for the cop to indicate to avoid confusion and possible ensuing accident. Especially in light of previous well publicised incidents.