Failure to Yield to Emergency Vehicle

Thought I'd share - as a trucker - how I managed to get 2 tickets in one day in Iowa back in early January. It was on highway 63 and if I remember correctly the town was Clearwater. It was getting toward the end of my shift and it was in the early morning, so I was a bit tired and getting a bit bored. I was certainly not sleepy though. This being the case I failed to notice a sign saying that the speed limit dropped to 50 mph and no doubt I should have been paying attention to this. A police cruiser put on his lights and sirens behind me, it was a 2 lane highway, there was snow on the shoulder, and in the area where the cruiser's lights came on it didn't look safe for me to pull over. So I slowed down and waited for awhile to pull over looking for a safe place. After awhile my co-driver said I should just stop where I was even though I would be blocking part of the right lane. So I stopped at this point. The cop told me that I would get 2 tickets, one for going 60 in a 55 zone, one for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. He told me that when you see the cruiser's lights you are to pull over immediately, and if it turns out the spot is unsafe, the police officer will inform you about it and have you move. I wasn't too happy about the 'Failure to Yield' ticket since my intention was to be safe. However I understand the reason behind this law is safety. Perhaps I could have been pulled over for some potentially dangerous mechanical issue such as a wobbling wheel on my trailer that I didn't notice. Still I think that I could have been given a warning for this instead. Then again, everyone that gets a ticket always wants a warning instead of a ticket. One thing that is certain is that the speeding ticket I did deserve.

Thomas Weeks and Wife Beating

Just read up on Author and Bishop Thomas Weeks pleading guilty for the assault on his wife at religionnewsblog.com. For a little more on this please see my Spirituality and Religion blog.