MnWilly
07-10-2011, 11:07 AM
First of all, let me say I do respect the job State Troopers do and I think their job is a lot more thankless than most LE jobs. That being said, this is a single experience with a single trooper and I am not painting them with a broad brush.
Here it goes. We were coming home from a week up at lake Vermilion Saturday afternoon and I was towing my boat. We were on 35W SB a few miles South of Cloquet. I had just passed several slower cars on the right and was going about 70 in the left lane. I put on my right turn signal checked my mirror twice and began slowly getting into the right lane. I was about halfway into the lane and still glancing between my mirror and the road in front of me. From nowhere came a trooper that was doing at least 100 to 110 mph passing me in the right lane. There was no siren and it was a flat top car meaning no light bar. He did have his lights on but being a flat top and during the daytime they weren't really very visible. I stopped getting over and moved slightly back into the left lane but it didn't matter because as fast as the trooper was going he was already passed me and well in front of me before I could even react. Had I continued getting over, or had a made a faster lane change it could have been a really bad accident.
At first I was fine with it because I made the assumption that he was heading to some type of true emergency. It did scare the shit out of me because I had my wife and two kids and towing my boat made it impossible to make a quick reaction. I watched as this tropper continued going at least 100+ MPH on the freeway in pretty moderately heavy traffic. Again, assuming he was going to an emergency I didn't think much of it.
A few miles up the road I saw that he had stopped a car and was at the side of the car as though it was a routine traffic stop. It's safe to say that it was a speeder or some other type of petty offence. Now I was really pissed off. I mean really pissed off! I rarely second guess situation I have very few facts on but come on. Lets assume the guy he stopped was a bad speeder, say 85 or so. I doubt it was worse because I had been on the freeway for quite some time and I didn't recall the car he had stopped gonig passed me, and if it did nobody besides the trooper had passed me with any great amount of speed over 80. Is going that fast in a flat top cruiser without a siren worth catching a speeder? NO IS THE ANSWER. There is a time and place for speed enforcement. Moderatly busy traffic on a weekend with half the cars pulling RV and boats whipping in and out of that traffic at over 100mph IS NOT THE TIME FOR SPEED ENFORCEMENT!
AGAIN, this is one bad experience that I just had to get off my chest.
Here it goes. We were coming home from a week up at lake Vermilion Saturday afternoon and I was towing my boat. We were on 35W SB a few miles South of Cloquet. I had just passed several slower cars on the right and was going about 70 in the left lane. I put on my right turn signal checked my mirror twice and began slowly getting into the right lane. I was about halfway into the lane and still glancing between my mirror and the road in front of me. From nowhere came a trooper that was doing at least 100 to 110 mph passing me in the right lane. There was no siren and it was a flat top car meaning no light bar. He did have his lights on but being a flat top and during the daytime they weren't really very visible. I stopped getting over and moved slightly back into the left lane but it didn't matter because as fast as the trooper was going he was already passed me and well in front of me before I could even react. Had I continued getting over, or had a made a faster lane change it could have been a really bad accident.
At first I was fine with it because I made the assumption that he was heading to some type of true emergency. It did scare the shit out of me because I had my wife and two kids and towing my boat made it impossible to make a quick reaction. I watched as this tropper continued going at least 100+ MPH on the freeway in pretty moderately heavy traffic. Again, assuming he was going to an emergency I didn't think much of it.
A few miles up the road I saw that he had stopped a car and was at the side of the car as though it was a routine traffic stop. It's safe to say that it was a speeder or some other type of petty offence. Now I was really pissed off. I mean really pissed off! I rarely second guess situation I have very few facts on but come on. Lets assume the guy he stopped was a bad speeder, say 85 or so. I doubt it was worse because I had been on the freeway for quite some time and I didn't recall the car he had stopped gonig passed me, and if it did nobody besides the trooper had passed me with any great amount of speed over 80. Is going that fast in a flat top cruiser without a siren worth catching a speeder? NO IS THE ANSWER. There is a time and place for speed enforcement. Moderatly busy traffic on a weekend with half the cars pulling RV and boats whipping in and out of that traffic at over 100mph IS NOT THE TIME FOR SPEED ENFORCEMENT!
AGAIN, this is one bad experience that I just had to get off my chest.