Speeding not to be easily dismissed

Breeze Reader’s View

I am an employee at JMU and also a retired police officer from a metropolitan police department in Maryland. My childhood dream was to become a policeman, and it is true that I never thought about just writing tickets. The last seven years of my career was spent in the traffic division. I was sent to school and became an accident reconstructionist, and I investigated fatal accidents. One of the first accidents I handled involved a decapitation of a motorcyclist. I have seen people that have been impaled by objects, burned beyond recognition, crushed, etc. — all because they committed a traffic violation.

When not investigating accidents, my duties were to enforce traffic laws. While I did not enjoy writing speeding citations, I saw them as a preventative measure so that I wouldn’t have to handle another fatal accident. Goodman states in his article that people traveling at 65 mph are just speed bumps to other drivers including yourself.

Most officers I knew had a certain tolerance for people exceeding the limit by a small margin, but there is a point that you become dangerous. If the officer feels you are unsafe, then you should be stopped. When the officer stops you, he is not thinking about the budget woes of the jurisdiction they work for — driving in each state is a privilege, not a right. The state has a right to expect all drivers to obey the traffic laws and they employ police officers to enforce those laws. The license that you possess is not your property to do with as you please, it is owned by the state and can be revoked at any time for abusing that privilege. Statistics prove that the lack of driving experience for your age contributes to most of the accidents occurring in the United States.

My suggestion is to visit a shock trauma unit where they bring in accident victims. My experience was at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. The main reason for me to write citations was preventative. I was tired of investigating fatal accidents. The last accident I investigated occurred 10 days before Christmas. I had to respond to a home, sit down in the living room next to the Christmas tree and tell a young mother and her 6 and 4-year-old children that their father had been killed in a traffic accident. It was one of the hardest notifications I ever made. It set into motion my decision to retire. Oh, the reason for the accident — speeding.

Gary L. Gregory is a retired officer from the Balitmore County Police Department and is currently employed at JMU Parking Services.