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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:12:39 AM EDT
I am on call for the Emergency Department today. I got a call this am that the place was getting overwhelmed by an influx of walk-ins plus EMS. I changed into my scrubs and took off. About halfway there, I get pulled over for doing 76 in a 65. I told the officer why I was doing what I was doing. He issued me a citation and told me to tell it to the court. I'm pissed.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:15:00 AM EDT
[#1]
Had to be a rookee. I won't write any Firemen, EMS, etc, because I know they may have to work on me someday.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:16:41 AM EDT
[#2]
the first rule is to not make the situation worse by becoming a casualty yourself.
slow down unless you have wounded in the car with you.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:17:35 AM EDT
[#3]
10/21...close to the end of the month.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:18:22 AM EDT
[#4]
I thought about that, but didn't say anything. 
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:19:48 AM EDT
[#5]
I wouldn't of pulled over until I got to work. ThenI'd of ran into the hospital, found the first pregnant woman I could and yank her baby right out. No traffic court in the world would convict you. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:20:05 AM EDT
[#6]
That is gay, especially since you were in scrubs. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:20:21 AM EDT
[#7]
Well.... you were speeding.
I woudl never do such a thing. However, you WERE speeding. Whether your reason is good or not is not really up to the officer. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:20:50 AM EDT
[#8]
Add to that list Doc's and nurses |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:20:56 AM EDT
[#9]
Be glad you didn't have your dog with you.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:22:03 AM EDT
[#10]
Did the cop make it home safely?
Sgatr15 |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:22:11 AM EDT
[#11]
So by that reasoning, any violation is automatically cited. There should never be any "warning" issued, right? |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:24:07 AM EDT
[#12]
What about dealers? You might want a baggie someday....  Sgatr15 |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:26:37 AM EDT
[#13]
Not judging or throwing in an opinion because I wasn't there, but if you feel that speeding was justified, take his advice. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:28:27 AM EDT
[#14]
Don't forget bakers. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:33:28 AM EDT
[#15]
I will. I just don't look forward to spending the day in MUNICIPAL COURT. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:37:52 AM EDT
[#16]
Are you a Doctor? Did a specific persons life depend on your arrival? Meaning, are you coming in to do emergency surgery? I'm not saying that the guy should have pinched you but you admit you were speeding. You seem to think you are entitled to some special consideration. You're not, Nobody is "entitled' to it. You either get it and be thankful or you don't and take your lumps. Coming here and bitching makes you seem arrogant and petty. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:51:39 AM EDT
[#17]
Yes, I am. I have to assume that when I am called in to the "Emergency Department", that it is an "emergency". When you or one of your loved ones is lying on a gurney in an ED with whatever illness or injury you want to imagine, let's see how you'll like it if the wait to be seen is 2 or 3 hours. The fact that we have a system to call in an extra doctor to keep people from waiting, and thus shorten the duration of their pain, discomfort, illness, or KEEP THEM FROM DYING, means that they are seen and treated that much more quickly. If I know that there are 20 people with ingrown toenails or colds waiting, it's one thing. Unfortunately, I don't. When you have your heart attack, or when your daughter breaks her arm and is screaming, I expect you to sit patiently and not complain when the wait is hours and only one MD is available. Let's see who's bitching then. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 8:57:35 AM EDT
[#18]
I have been to several different emergency rooms and NEVER once gotten out of there in under 4 hours. Didn't matter if we were the only ones there or not. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 9:00:17 AM EDT
[#19]
Then get an escort! Or better yet, go through all the requirements enabling you to put that red flasher on the roof and have at it. Speeding is speeding. Quit crying. As to stopping someone who may treat you, talk about a double standard! And some wonder why we civilians .... |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 9:01:48 AM EDT
[#20]
Oh, you're a |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 9:03:24 AM EDT
[#21]
Take it up in court? HAH! The judge will just automatically make you pay the fine + court fees. Your excuse does not matter to them.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 9:05:47 AM EDT
[#22]
And candlestick makers... |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 9:09:13 AM EDT
[#23]
Speed limits are over rated.
MT |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 9:12:47 AM EDT
[#24]
This should get interesting...
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Posted: 10/21/2004 9:13:42 AM EDT
[#25]
When I worked for a police department in college, I knew an officer who went against the norm and used to cite fireman, EMS, etc. His reasoning was basically that the Motor Vehicle Law doesn't say "You can't break the speed limit...unless you are a fireman or paramedic, etc." He said that people die in car accidents just the same no matter who you are. Habitually letting off a class of people just because of what they do for a living only empowered them to speed more and increase the likelihood of an accident.
Believe it or not, he got along really well with all the firemen and paramedics. They just knew where he stood |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 9:20:07 AM EDT
[#26]
Isn't there a section in Texas Transportation Code that allows doctors to exceed the speed limit by like ten miles an hour if they are on the way to an actual emergency? My traffic law is a bit rusty since I don't care about writing tickets that much anymore.
I wouldn't have written you but, regardless, don't get all high and mighty and say well I'll get you back by making you wait if you're having a heart attack. THAT'S VERY UNPROFFESIONAL. Maybe that's not what you meant in one of your other replies but that's the way it sounds. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 9:20:13 AM EDT
[#27]
Is there a law in your area that exempts docs on emergency calls? If not, then the officer did nothing wrong, IMO. You're free to fight the ticket in court, and maybe a sympathetic judge will grant an exception and throw out the ticket. If so, great, but I wouldn't expect special treatment with no law to back it up.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 9:46:07 AM EDT
[#28]
Quoted:
Isn't there a section in Texas Transportation Code that allows doctors to exceed the speed limit by like ten miles an hour if they are on the way to an actual emergency? My traffic law is a bit rusty since I don't care about writing tickets that much anymore. I wouldn't have written you but, regardless, don't get all high and mighty and say well I'll get you back by making you wait if you're having a heart attack. THAT'S VERY UNPROFFESIONAL. Maybe that's not what you meant in one of your other replies but that's the way it sounds. [/quote Of course, it is not my intent to come across as an ass. I was not insinuating that I would make anyone wait. To the contrary, my point to Sukebe was that I don't want anyone to wait. I knew there would be the inevitable God-complex stuff come up here. Believe me, if I had that, I would not be in Emergency Medicine. We get yelled at, bled on, shit on , spit on, threatened and assaulted more than those in any other area of medicine. My perspective is that I'm doing the best I can to get to a place where I know that a lot of people need something done. Some may be emergent, some may not. I just have to assume the worst. My hope was that a LEO would have some insight into that. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 12:36:15 PM EDT
[#29]
Be realistic, did you know they had a back-up of trauma or just a back up of the I got aa tummyache or flu and I don't have a regular Doc to go to?
My Podiatrist is on-call to a few ERs around here. (And having had gout I can understand why but still how many gout cases do you get?) For whatever reason he decided to perform his job as he is paid to. He issues the ticket, the Judge decides. Maybe the Chief has cracked down because he's been getting too many requests for leniency, we're having a Wedding at the xxx Church can you ignore the parking violations, I know you do at the yyy Church or the Woman's Club, or don't pick on the drunk drivers leaving the American Legion Post, or I'm Councilman Z and my bro-in-law got a ticket but my Sister didn't., etc etc etc. I know my Dad's Chief used to get so fed up with the City Council and their requests for slack that he would go into a NO slack everybody gets tickets, no discretion mode. for a few months and then ease up. And working in an ED you must see the result of poor driving more than the rest of us. I've known a hell of a lot of traffic officers over the years and I've never had one tell me he was at an "accident", all were collisionss. Everyone have had at least one driver screw up . Then again you probably let the EMS or gurney pushers make your diagnoses? Didn't think so. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 12:38:58 PM EDT
[#30]
Never ticket cab drivers. You never know when you might need a ride home.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 12:48:58 PM EDT
[#31]
Cabby Huh?....
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Posted: 10/21/2004 1:21:26 PM EDT
[#32]
A written warnig would of done the job.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 1:28:59 PM EDT
[#33]
I knew a pilot in Canada that flew emergeny medevac and he had some type of get out of jail free card for just such a case.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 1:29:28 PM EDT
[#34]
As a 10+ year EMT I must say that ER docs rarely if ever have God Complexes. Nurses now... Larry |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 1:33:32 PM EDT
[#35]
+1 |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 1:43:14 PM EDT
[#36]
The law is the law unless you're an officer of the law..then you're above the law.
$#&* whoever is dying in the ER and quit playing God, the almighty State legislature has decreed that no one shall speed under any circumstances. $%&*ing "law is the law" people are often the same walleyevisioned people who cry about criminals getting off on "technicalities" and who think it's criminal that anyone should request a trial rather than plead guilty and "man up" Hopefully nobody paid a price as a result of the all important enforcement of the speed limit, which as we know from other ar15.com threads is a "higher law" handed down from God himself on high. Burn in hell, heretic. eta: you may have been immune at the time..check your local laws... most emergency personnel, judges, lawyers and LE are exempt under certain circumstances in my home state YMMV |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 2:40:29 PM EDT
[#37]
Cop sounds kind of like an ass, with his "tell it to the court" comment. Ten over is dangerous? Really? But a cop running code (around here at least) usually is allowed 15-25 over, less for intersections
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Posted: 10/21/2004 2:42:13 PM EDT
[#38]
I would have given you an escort lights and sirens Then if you had been a liar -----------
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Posted: 10/21/2004 2:51:53 PM EDT
[#39]
+2 |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 2:54:14 PM EDT
[#40]
I don't think that's the suggestion at all. I may be off base but I think it's not the fact that he is a doctor that should bear on this matter but the fact that he's a doctor en route to an emergency. That may not matter to you until you or a loved one suffers or potentially dies because you had to wait for the doc who was getting written a ticket. Maybe it wouldn't matter to you even then. That's your call, of course. Be careful how you treat others...you never know when they will have a chance to return the favor. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 3:13:39 PM EDT
[#41]
Sorry man... but speeding is speeding unless you have lights and they are ON. As an emergecy physician, you should know that people that drive fast cause accidents more often than people that obey the speed limit. No matter how well you drive, grandma pulling out of her driveway that can't turn her head to see you might not be able to stop in time. If I was the cop I would say, you were speeding, I could have saved YOUR life from stopping you from speeding, and having you alive and at the hospital can SAVE more lives. Here's an interesting speed test... next time some asshole passes you at 85 when you're doing 65(or think back to whenever this may have happened) and you get up to a red light, or stop say that is only say 1 mile away, and you stop right behind that car? Driving that fast didn't get them there any faster. The difference for every 10 mph over the speed limit you go, is only one whole minute for every 10 miles you go. Is 10 seconds a mile worth a ticket and increasing the chances of an accident? Not really.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 3:18:11 PM EDT
[#42]
Edited, 'cause I had some time to think about what i was saying and didn't like it.
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Posted: 10/21/2004 3:20:18 PM EDT
[#43]
A guy named Daytona is giving a lecture about speeding? (It's a joke)
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Posted: 10/21/2004 3:23:14 PM EDT
[#44]
Thats why I either stick to the speed limit or go as fast as the truck will go
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Posted: 10/21/2004 3:23:40 PM EDT
[#45]
Just about EVERY American does something that you depend on everyday. Your attitude makes me ill and you disgust me as a public servant. |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 3:25:22 PM EDT
[#46]
Actually, don't statistics show that the more time you spend on the road, the more likely you are to be involved in an accident? Therefore, you should drive as fast as possible, thereby reducing the amount of time you are on the road and, consequently, your chances of being involved in an accident...yeah I know I'm a wiseacre 
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Posted: 10/21/2004 3:26:21 PM EDT
[#47]
Here's a question for the attorneys--What is the likelihood of the judge being sympathetic?
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Posted: 10/21/2004 3:30:02 PM EDT
[#48]
The judge's attitude depends on too many factors to speculate, IMO. Most important among them will be the applicable law. An exemption may or may not be available in these circumstances. As I indicated earlier, my home state has some exemptions for emergency personnel, law enforcement et al. but those exemptions only apply under limited circumstances, YMMV
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Posted: 10/21/2004 3:31:00 PM EDT
[#49]
It doesn't mean I'm a nascar fan, it's the name of the motorcycle I love so dearly legalese77-- Studies show that 80% of statistics are made up on the spot... (Remember kids, correlation doesn't prove causation) They also say that most accidents occur within 20 miles of your home, so move!! Jokes aside... if you actually have those stats I would be really interested in seeing them. . Edited for sepling(spelling). |
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Posted: 10/21/2004 3:32:26 PM EDT
[#50]
sorry, made it up on the spot
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