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First responders in Maine talk


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On June 25th, 1979, my friend and squad member, SDPD officer, Dennis Gonzales, stopped a car on San Diego's Interstate 8 for a traffic violation. Dennis approached the vehicle and contacted the vehicle's driver on the white-line side, when moments later, he was struck by a hit n' run motorist. My friend lost his life over a traffic stop forty-years ago. Question:  If white-line safety is a top-priority of the world's first responders, why does LE still make traffic stops while standing on the white-line traffic side?  Better yet, why make traffic stops on the highway at all? What's the cost of a misdemeanor speeding ticket versus all costs of a police officer fatality, the ensuing investigation, costs of all responders working the crash, clean-up etc, ... not to mention the loss to the officer's family, the officer's department and the community where the officer served? From this dash-cam video, at 1:49 in, it's more than obvious this deputy clearly put himself in harms way by standing on the white-line and not paying attention to approaching traffic. Sometimes there's a complacent mentality that creeps-in to suggest, "Eh ... I've made a million traffic stops and I've never been hit." But, what's the logic in that?, I believe are two messages to heed, one, the motoring public needs to slow-down and move-over (if they can) and two, traffic contacts and citations should NEVER be conducted on the white-line as mentioned at the end of the video. That's pretty simple, but to this day ... it's not happening.     R.

Randall C. Resch

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