Crack those windows!

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
June 7, 2009

And turn down your radios. And hang up your cell phones.

One area for some good tickets would be to careless, inattentive drivers who fail to yield to emergency vehicles.

This evening, about 7:20PM, a Woodstock police car was running hot north on Route 47 past the Jewel-Osco. The lights could be seen for some distance and the siren was easily heard.

A driver in a pick-up truck pulled to the curb just past the oil-change place and Subway and stopped. A yellow Mustang slowed behind him and then suddenly pulled around him and right into the path of the police car.

The officer was alert and was able to use the middle, two-way left-turn lane and a portion of the southbound lane to avoid sideswiping the woman in the Mustang. Part of defensive driving under emergency conditions has got to be to watch for stupid things done by stupid drivers, and the officer avoided an accident by doing so.

Too bad he couldn't stop and write her a ticket. She didn't even stop as he passed her, and then she turned east on Irving Road.

Drivers, crack your driver's window a little and keep your sound system at a level where you can heard outside traffic and sirens. Also, it wouldn't hurt to look in your rearview mirror every once in a while. That driver clearly did not check for traffic behind her before she pulled around the pick-up truck. Wouldn't you think she might have wondered why that pick-up in front of her pulled over the curb and stopped?