Chev climbs guy wire; no ticket

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
September 9, 2009

On August 25 an accident occured near Kimball and Gerry, when a Chevrolet Suburban (not your smallest of vehicles) went wire climbing, after the 59-year-old driver "got distracted while turning the corner and drove off the roadway", according to the article on Page 6 of September 2's The Woodstock Independent.

TWI carried a good photo of the Suburban at about a 35-degree angle to the ground and three of the four tires off the ground.

What's news about this? Hundreds of drivers are ticketed every month in Woodstock for traffic violations. One can assume that a few drivers get written warnings, but no tickets. Relatively speaking, one ought to be able to assume that the most minor of infractions result in warnings, and the more serious infractions result in tickets.

But how does this accident qualify for no ticket, say, compared to a burned-out headlight or not signalling a right turn within the required 100' of a corner? Or how does an admitted distracted driver who runs a stop sign and t-bones a car in an intersection qualify for no ticket? In that case, having a badge in his pocket probably had something to do with it.

TWI was kind to the driver of the Suburban and didn't identify him. Why not?

The Woodstock Police Department needs to educate its citizenry on just what is involved in the discretion exercised by its officers. If the public knows what the department guidelines are, then it can determine whether discretion is being exercised fairly.

To me, it looked like the driver of the Suburban was on the wrong sign of the road and had traveled some distance on the parkway before going wire-climbing. Just how distracted was he, that he couldn't hit the brakes and get stopped? And what was the distraction? \