Posted on 12/25/2018 3:16:15 AM PST by lightman
Detective Deidre Mengedoht was killed when her patrol car was struck by an impaired driver while conducting a traffic stop on I-64, between 4th Street and 6th Street, in downtown Louisville just after 2:00 pm.
Her vehicle was stopped in the right lane with its emergency equipment activated when it was struck from behind by a Metropolitan Sewer District tractor-trailer. The patrol car was pushed into the vehicle she had stopped and became engulfed in flames with Detective Mengedoht trapped inside.
The driver of the tractor-trailer was charged with driving under the influence and murder of a law enforcement officer.
Detective Mengedoght had served with the Louisville Metro Police Department for seven years. She is survived by a young son.
Well said. Also, the law that traffic has to move over into the left lane when passing by stopped law enforcement is not the answer, either. When I was driving a tractor trailer around the country, I often saw people almost commit suicide trying to get into the left lane when there wasn't room. As you say, the answer is to pull over at the next exit. In rural areas where there aren't exits, a second shoulder/pull off area needs to be added to the interstates every couple of miles.
It matters in this respect, many ppl drive when taking prescription antihypertensives and over-the-counter antihistamines. Both can cause impairment and most ppl drive anyway. Times have changed and cops today will ask about your meds if involved in an accent.
Being a young mother is the most important job on earth. They should not be in such dangerous employment. I pray that God will bless that young son and the rest of this family and guide them through their grief.
Maybe she saw reckless driving.
“The driver .... was charged with .... murder of a law enforcement officer.”
Killing a cop should be no worse an offense than killing anyone else. Cops are not a superior class.
This and so many other things make me dislike cops.
They really need to figure something out, I don’t know if they can dim them at night because of how a strobe system works, a filter over them maybe. It is actually endangering those who they pull over also. They are so bright they can be seen from more than 20 miles away during even bright sunny days. At night in the dark this is like someone flashing red and blue headlights on bright right in your eyes.
It is blinding in the least and by nature causes drivers to inadvertently steer towards and into them without being able to “feel” that they are because all lane “reference points” are gone. For even professional drivers with years of experience it takes all the experience we can muster to fight that natural “pull” phenomenon and “feel” our lane and line while approaching and passing them.
I remember when they had regular bulbs and this was not as much a problem at all like it is now. This issue became a problem when they started to use the bright strobe bulbs. Regular bulbs at night and strobes during the day maybe? But I do know that they are a serious safety hazard the way it is now. The strobes can even trigger seizures in folks with epilepsy.
What happened to this officer is terrible, but there are hundreds of cases not reported where this happens and the drivers are not impaired at all. I think many of these could be prevented if they take a serious look at these bright strobes might be an issue making the safety situation worse.
I’m sure you have seen this too as a driver like myself. European tourists have a bad habit of trying to pull over and stop in the center divider on major interstates instead of the right shoulder or exits. Sometimes just to take pictures. It’s a real problem across I-40.
They aren’t those round gumballs from back in the day either, the rear facing strobe-like lights probably trigger epileptics, they are a hazard.
So true! I know this from driving late at night on highways and getting bored or sleepy. Moth to a light! And this idiot did it in broad daylight.
Funny my wife and I were just driving out that way the other day, and I said as everyone sped past me, I don’t know why any of the cops pull anybody over for speeding there. Giving a speeder a ticket is not worth your life in my opinion.
My wife used to work for a local towing company, and one of the drivers who had moved here from New Jersey, said he refused to change a tire on the highway. If they wanted their tire changed he would tow them to the nearest exit and then do them and they had to pay for the Towing charge. Otherwise no.
Tow truck drivers have a high rate of fatalities, it’s one of the most dangerous jobs out there.
Fact... And even those were as bright as headlights on high beam yet still did not completely blind folks like the strobes do. There is some biology also involved like you say, epileptics are allowed to drive too unless it is very serious.
But I think biology has a lot of influence that the irises cannot adjust open and closed fast enough to compensate for how fast the strobe rates are flashing and renders you blind while trying to do this.
As you know... They make tactical defense flashlights that do this very strobe rate flashing to render who you shine them at absolutely blind in the dark. It screws with your eyes big time and all you can see unless you look away is the strobe period.
These law enforcement “disco lights” as we call them are doing the very same thing to drivers. Even just yellow is not at all as bad as the red and blues are.
It is so bad that when I am working on the side of the road and an officer stops to check on me, I now stop working and walk way off the shoulder until they leave. I am blunt when they want to stick around, “please take your crash attraction device away so I can safely finish here”. And I won’t continue until they do.
Had way too many close calls because of it already. As in sideswipe mirror removal type close calls.
A very sad story. I do hope her family can come together and find relief from such pain.
“This and so many other things make me dislike cops”
The law was written specifically for you.
I literally watch them drift over into the lights and then catch it at the last second to dart back out just before they hit them. All day long, all night long.
I was born into and still own a towing and road service company. Been in this business for 57 years and now have a little bit of it figured out.
And this strobe thing is a serious issue that is killing people. It happens much much more often than most would think. like I say, I stopped using my yellow strobes at night any now only use my four way flashers. I no longer see this drift towards me very often anymore.
The perp "...admitted to taking multiple prescription drugs according to an arrest citation."
"The arrest citation indicates blood testing occurred, but results are pending. The court record does not suggest alcohol was involved."
More info there. Driver ID’d. Doesn’t appear to have been from booze. Prescription drugs mentioned.
Sad lives have been changed forever due to one stupid person.
Yeah, especially since most of those hit-runs happen after dark and/or very early in the morning and usually within the limits of the City of Detroit.
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