I don't know what caused a Beverly police officer's cruiser to demolish itself against a parked car on the wrong side of the road, killing a woman. Inattention, overdriving, and mechanical failure are the top three candidates, I imagine. But I know what it wasn't.
According to NECN's Sunday morning broadcast, some Beverly police officers are talking about a rash of unintended acceleration in their Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors, as if to suggest that the car may have decided to speed up on its own.
I appreciate closing ranks, guys, but it wasn't unintended acceleration.
It never is.
Apparently, according to the article, the cruiser not only accelerated all by itself it also swerved across the yellow line and then committed suicide by running itself into the parked car. I guess it just didn't like Camrys.
"Unintended Acceleration" --- That's just another way to say your foot was on the wrong pedal. As far as I know it's never been shown to exist any other way. ( Despite what that paragon of truthfulness, 60 minutes, claimed when they invented it.)
But my guess is that the officer was reading something on his computer or was in some other manner distracted or maybe this was at the end of a long overnight shift and he dozed off. In that there was no mention of another call that he was on, it probably wasn't over driving. A mechanical failure is always possible, but I would expect that Beverly can afford to properly maintain and renew it's fleet of cruisers. And they're not subjected to the same abuse from bad roads as places like Boston or other larger areas.
Posted by: Ted | January 21, 2007 at 12:59 PM
I'm going to go with the "Cops are high school drop out assholes out for revenge on all the people that did graduate and go on to leading productive, useful lives, and those that they can steal their drugs form" argument. But only because its true.
Posted by: Steve | January 23, 2007 at 07:23 PM
My guess? Steve failed out of high school (English did him in), took up drugs, and got arrested more than once by former classmates who, tired of giving their old buddy a break, finally decided a little jail might do him some good.
Posted by: carpundit | January 23, 2007 at 09:07 PM
Actually, no. I graduated high school with honors, went on to a top engineering school and have since held two quality engineering jobs (so don't knock my English skills, I'm commenting on a blog and I haven't taken a proper english course since I passed my two AP English exams in high school). Sure I dabbled in drugs, but never "got caught". I also moved out of my home town, so I've yet to encounter any former friends that became cops.
What I have experienced though is numerous incidents with "bad cops" doing things well beyond what one would consider decent and honest. Both to me and to friends in various and differing incidents. Include on top of this all the things I read about in the news of "bad cops" and how they use the power and authority entrusted to them as though they never matured beyond the high school bully mentality.
Posted by: Steve | January 24, 2007 at 03:09 PM
Well, OK, my guess was wrong. Your statement that most cops are bullies, thieves, drug users, and dropouts is so far off the mark that it would be funny if you weren't walking around with that chip on your shoulder.
You strike me as the kind of the guy who goads cops into arresting him and then complains about being harassed.
Grow up.
Posted by: carpundit | January 24, 2007 at 08:08 PM
His first post was insanely out of line, but he did return to qualify the comment. Also, even if that wasn't up to expected decorum, the fact that your thread suggests cops could kill a citizen out of incompetence or negligence then possibly cover it up, either willful or ignorance, invited less than favorable remarks toward law enforcement.
Hey does anyone have the spec's for the foot pedal cluster on Crown Vics, regarding placement left of center VS industry standard? Should solve that question.
I wonder if Viper drivers get "unintended clutch" accidents?
Posted by: batvette | January 27, 2007 at 03:47 AM
Does unintended acceleration EVER occur with a manual transmission?
Although I haven't seen statistics to prove it, it's my guess that manual transmissions are safer than automatic transmissions. It's unfortunate that there aren't statistics comparing the accident rates of automatic and manual transmissions.
Posted by: FRE | May 28, 2007 at 03:11 AM