I was watching a show on TLC where in one of the episodes a husband was rushing his wife to the hospital; she was having delivery pains but had no idea she was pregnant, so obviously both were horrified. Somewhere along the way police started chasing them but the husband refused to stop until he arrived at the hospital. For all he knew, his wife was dying, she was screaming in pain, sweating, etc. Then there is this story from Boston, where a couple on their way to the hospital to deliver a baby was delayed and cited for driving in a wrong lane.
My question is: in a critical situation when a person has an urgent, legitimate and provable need to get to a hospital will the law be understanding? What’s better – to keep driving and ignore the sirens or to stop and try to explain? What if every minute is critical?
On a lesser scale, what if any delay will almost definitely result in a certain accident? Once I had to race home when my kid was that close to having one, on another occasion an adult passenger in my car had to urgently find a restroom and I had to speed up in order to save my vehicle from being ruined. What would police say if you lead them to your house and run to the toilet?
I know at least two real life lawyers who read this and a few home-grown ones with lots of armchair experience. What should a person do?
I haven’t seen a loophole that says, “…unless you have a really good excuse.” (But then again, I went to a sucky law school.) Do what you gotta do and beg for the mercy of the law enforcement officer(s) or the judge.
So it doesn’t weigh saving a life against routine traffic violation?
Well there’s a long, long road between committing the (alleged) offense and the disposition of the case. If you have a legit excuse and a halfway decent defense attorney you can probably get the prosecutor to drop the charges. But you’ll still have to pay attorneys fees, etc. and potentially cool your jets in the county lockup.
Police officers should exercise discretion in citing folks that clearly had to make a choice between a law that is intended to protect people generally and a situation that appears to be actually harming somebody specifically. If the cop happens to be a dick (it happens sometimes), see if the judge is reasonable. If the judge is also a dick, well there you go. Hope it was worth the ticket.
call an ambulance. problem solved.
I’d drive like a bat out of hell if it required saving someone’s life, and to hell with anyone following me. I’d gladly appear in court to explain my actions. The running to the bathroom might get you a SWAT team though.
I knew a friend who went to court to fight his speeding ticket in Maryland. He was just a dumb kid trying to get less points(it worked.) While he was in court a guy went up without a lawyer and told the judge he had needed to use the bathroom and had fouled himself while getting the ticket. The cop confirmed the story. The judge let him go with no charges, fines or points but he had to pay court fees.
I don’t know if it was a number 1 or a number 2, so there the story ends.
Honestly, what I’ve learned is that cops will follow you a REALLY LONG way if your tags don’t show you as a criminal and you wave to let them you know you see them. I once had a cop follow me 22 minutes in the desert. We weren’t in contact with each other, he was out of sight, but he didn’t call out choppers or pursuit vehicles because he hadn’t read my plates yet. When he did, I was already pulling over for breakfast. I just got a ticket.