Behind the Wheel - December 15, 2004

[skidmark]

Lights and Reflectors

The next time you get into your vehicle, start it up, set the parking brake, turn on all of the lights and the hazard flashers. Walk around your vehicle and check all the lights. Are they all lit as they should be, and are the lenses clean, intact and still the right colour? If so, you are good to go from the standpoint of lights at least.

For most vehicles today you should find high and low beam headlights, signal lights, park lights and side marker lights at the front. At the rear it will be brake lights, tail lights, signal lights, license plate light, back up lights, and side marker lights. Some larger commercial vehicles will also have clearance and identification lights.

If you choose to install other approved auxiliary lights such as fog or driving lights, these must be in proper working order as well.

Not to be forgotten are the reflectors. These must be yellow on both sides at the front and red at both sides at the rear as well as red at both sides of the rear. If you break down and can't turn the lights on, reflectors are your only protection during darkness. Incidentally, this is another good reason not to park facing the wrong way on the street. You don't have protective reflectors on the front of your vehicle.

Are your headlights aimed properly? If they all function but point in the wrong direction they don't help you see and they hurt the other drivers ability to see. If misalignment is visible to you, it is well past time to have the aim corrected.

Having one headlight, tail light or brake light out is but one step away from having no head, tail or brake lights. If you don't have functioning low beam headlights, tail lights or brake lights your vehicle is in an out of service condition. Should you be stopped, the officer may choose to send you away by tow truck in addition to any other enforcement action such as a traffic ticket or a vehicle inspection order.

[Speed_69]

Are you a police officer or what?

[Carfanman]

^^ just what I was thinking

EDIT: nvm guess not.


Originally posted by skidmark
What's an anti-cruising law?

[SaabKraft]

ride: Chevrolet Impala fully marked
avatar: officer with a baton
subject: traffic safety

i'd say it's a safe bet to say so.

EDIT: or not? :dunno:

[DayGlow]

Originally posted by Carfanman
^^ just what I was thinking

EDIT: nvm guess not.



The only place I know of in Canada that has an anti-cruising by-law is White Rock, BC along the road by the beach. Not that well know in Canada.

[skidmark]

Click the WWW button and you will get an even stronger indication....

Yes, I have 24 years of service with the RCMP, 20 of them spent on traffic enforcement in BC.

A bit of a biography:

http://www.revscene.net/forums//showthread.php?s=&threadid=63590

[qmf]

boo-erns

[Superesc]

Welcome to the forum, We hope your posting here will have a good influence on the young ones. (ok the older ones too ;) )

[nismodrifter]

Here is skidmarks biography for those who are not members on revscene :)

As of December 2004 I have 24 years of service with the RCMP.

Of that, I spent the usual 6 months of basic recruit training at Depot in Regina, 4 years on General Duties in Fort St. John, B.C. and the balance of my service in traffic enforcement in Fort St. John, the South Okanagan and now on Central Vancouver Island.

Some of my traffic specific training includes:

- radar/laser operation, laser instructor
- breath testing technician
- approved screening device operation/calibration/trainer
- Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance level II/III inspector
- collision analysis
= speed from skid, yaw, flip, vault, fall
= determination of seatbelt use
= lamp status at time of collision
= tire failure analysis
= pedestrian collision speed analysis
= heavy truck tip over speed calculations
= basic surveying
= airbag control module data recovery

As well as participating in this forum I write:

- Behind the Wheel, a weekly newspaper column.
- The Bear's View in Pro-Trucker magazine
- Assisting R.W. Rivers in a publication on collision photography

I teach driving related seminars at Elder College

I am also the webmaster for Vancouver Island Traffic Services, TrafficSource and RRID.

I also find the time to write the odd Violation Ticket and Notice & Order.

Hopefully, I am qualified to answer most of your questions!

Nice to have you around :thumbsup:

[benyl]

Yeah, before Beyond, I used to read revscene alot. Skidmark has his own section overthere. Cool guy. :thumbsup:

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Good to know there's at least one guy on here who knows the laws behind all the ticket stuff that gets complained about on here!:thumbsup:

Good to have you on board.

[GoChris]

:thumbsup: good to have you aboard, ignore the immature that seem to go out of their way to cut down officers.

[DayGlow]

Guess I should come out of the closet as well.

I'm a member of the po-po here in Calgary, Don't have near the experience of Skidmark, only been a member for 1.5 years. I work out of district 8 way down south.

Found this board by accident, forget how, but to be honest I am amused by some of the whiner threads so I come back for a chuckle.

I choose to stay out of them because I was not there and have no idea what happened. Yes there are asshole cops on the job and I'm probably one of them sometimes. I will not get drawn into a discussion on the validity of a ticket nor will I judge another officers actions. To be truthful traffic enforcement is not a huge thing for me, but I understand that the rules of the road need to be enforced. (and no, there is no quota :bigpimp: )

Myself you can all bow before me in the splender and awe of my personal ride, a purple 95 Saturn :D If my plan of finding and marrying a smokin hot doctor comes about I will probably own a Audi S8 or Suburu WRX, so if anyone has a friend, let me know, k?

[skidmark]

The whole idea is not to be judgemental, but to provide the kind of advice that will keep you out of trouble and help you make an educated decision on what to do when you get into trouble.

I'm no different than DayGlow in that I don't criticise other officer's efforts other than by saying "I would have chosen to do it this way."

I am different in that I believe enforcement is a big part of keeping the highways safe. You are far more likely to be hurt or killed in a collision than you are from any of the other criminal activities combined. It goes without saying that I think education is another big part of my job.

DayGlow can provide the information on Alberta traffic statutes that I can't being from BC.

[abyss]

Nice to have ya here! Welcome!

[Kirbs17]

It'll be nice to have someone around to explain some of the quirky (sp?) rules that are out there. Nice to have you aboard.

[skidmark]

Thank you everyone.

[D'z Nutz]

skidmark: your presence and contributions are definitely welcome here at Beyond, despite what some of the childish cop-bashers have to say.

The same welcome is extended to any member of the law enforcement service.

[Weapon_R]

Please accept our sincere appreciation for your willingness to help the car enthusiasts of Calgary with any questions or concerns that we may have.

It is great to see a closer relationship between law enforcement and car enthusiasts! I hope that other members, who have asked us to remain anonymous, will follow your lead and come out into the open, so that we can work towards establishing our own type of "ask a cop" forum for any questions that members may have.

[Ben]

I'm so happy to have members of Law Enforcement on our forum. Way too many punk kids with this "F*ck the Police Mentality.

Having a large amount of friends and aquaintances on the force, have nothing but respect.

Tho you've been here for a while, my *official* welcome to Beyond.

Cheers!

[Team_Mclaren]

Welcome to beyond, your persent here will perhars help us solve many questions members have regarding the law. Wish you good luck and happy posting!

[finboy]

Originally posted by DayGlow
Guess I should come out of the closet as well.

I'm a member of the po-po here in Calgary, Don't have near the experience of Skidmark, only been a member for 1.5 years. I work out of district 8 way down south.

Found this board by accident, forget how, but to be honest I am amused by some of the whiner threads so I come back for a chuckle.

I choose to stay out of them because I was not there and have no idea what happened. Yes there are asshole cops on the job and I'm probably one of them sometimes. I will not get drawn into a discussion on the validity of a ticket nor will I judge another officers actions. To be truthful traffic enforcement is not a huge thing for me, but I understand that the rules of the road need to be enforced. (and no, there is no quota :bigpimp: )

Myself you can all bow before me in the splender and awe of my personal ride, a purple 95 Saturn :D If my plan of finding and marrying a smokin hot doctor comes about I will probably own a Audi S8 or Suburu WRX, so if anyone has a friend, let me know, k?

if you happen to pull over a loud dodge spirit, its stock, i SWEAR :D

[ZorroAMG]

Welcome to Beyond, Officers!