Reporting U-turns on Sheriff Car Crash

[XLFD]

Sometimes you can learn more from what a news report doesn't tell you rather than what it does tell you.  The same goes for law enforcement officers.  A case in point is from an article that appeared just overnight on the COLDNews with little more than what the  Mason County Press reported about a high profile accident that happened Monday afternoon (18 hours after the incident):

SHERMAN TOWNSHIP — A 31-year-old Ludington man was arrested for driving while license suspended (DWLS) following a two-vehicle crash involving a Mason County Sheriff’s Office patrol car on northbound US 31 near Fountain Road Monday, Dec. 16, at approximately 5 p.m., said Michigan State Police Sgt. Dan Thomas of the Hart post.
MSP is investigating the crash, and the accident report is not yet complete, Thomas said.
Minor injuries occurred in the crash, Thomas said.
US 31 was closed for several hours in the vicinity of the crash while the scene was being investigated.
“Anytime there is an incident involving a state or public official vehicle, it requires a full work-up on it,” Thomas said.

ANALYSIS: 

The MSP investigators and local reporters say little, but convey much.  

Frequently, you will receive a preliminary finding when an accident happens, at least as far as the particulars of the crash mechanisms.  Media listening to the emergency calls always pop by to take pictures, but nobody shows anything from the accident, meaning they would likely incriminate somebody other than the arrestee.  Either the police kept the media away, or they decided to squelch pictures that would say more than a thousand words. 

The article leads off with and spotlights a crime apparently irrelevant to the cause of the crash.  When a preliminary finding is left out of an accident involving a police vehicle, it's a surefire indicator that the findings have found at least some fault lies with the officer-- and there are witnesses or video that may have to be dealt with before an investigation can clear the officer of wrongdoing. 

So it was with little surprise that a third party responding to the MCP article indicated that both may exist: 

Randy Cox is not the only person who sees this behavior by sheriff's vehicles and MSP cars, and is troubled by it.  Making U-turns in icy conditions on a main highway is inherently dangerous, and should generally be frowned upon and prohibited by our sheriff department. 

This is why the MSP and police-friendly media lead off with the arrest of the (likely) not-at-fault driver for DWLS, to insinuate and rationalize to casual readers that the arrestee was at fault regardless, since they never should have been driving on the road in the first place.   We're hoping to get the video or some eyewitness reports to verify or refute Mr. Cox's version of events, but it seems like it should be accurate considering the way the police and media are framing the incident.

[Freedom Seeker]

U-TURNS should be illegal for police officers where they are for civilians, and more so when they cause an accident there should be reprimand. What if someone had been killed by the u-turn? I hope the incident it is on private camera.

I have had this happen to me by an officer doing a u-turn over double yellow lines on 5 lanes in heavy traffic. I was putting my seat belt on in a private driveway while stopped and waiting to enter the highway. The officer who was going the opposite way on the highway did the u-turn and gave me a ticket for not properly wearing my seat belt. I risked telling the officer "that the u-turn you just did endangered traffic and was much more dangerous than my putting my seat belt on while sitting to enter traffic." He said that I put my seat belt on when I saw him, which is not true. He was probably happy to add to his quota for the day and I learned my lesson to put my seat belt on before putting the car in drive.

[Willy]

I have seen this police maneuver many times and in my opinion it should only be done if there is an emergency.

I hope this was not part of their training. I also hope this does not get swept under the rug. It was pure luck that no one was seriously injured. I wonder what the police training manual has to say about how a situation like this should be handled? It probably instructs officers to emerge out of the dusty spin with guns blazing.

[Willy]