Is this a new law or a change to a current law:
What law do you wish to change/add:
Additional Information:
9.7 change.
What law do you wish to change/add:
9.7 (Emergency Vehicles):
Keep the original law, yet add a section requiring a minimum sentence of 2 years in prison for those who fail to comply with it.
Why should this change/addition be made:Keep the original law, yet add a section requiring a minimum sentence of 2 years in prison for those who fail to comply with it.
To help give you a better idea of why, I am going to tell you a story from when I was responding to a 911 call a time not so long ago...
It was getting dark and the sun rested not below the clouds, slowly sinking into the quicksand-horizon. I had received a 911 dispatch of a 261 (Rape) in progress out at the junk yard. I pulled out of the PD and announced my response. Above me, lights blue and red battled in a frenzy, flashes pull darkness down as they begin to take it's place. Sounds wailed from my car, crying out a tune that could only mean that a person was in need, a human life was in the balance.
I turned onto the highway and sped down an empty road at full speed. I was needed. I had a duty. As I approached the bridge, eager to help, a large vehicle took up my lane. I look left, but filing into my alternate route stampeded a pride of vehicles, prancing down the narrow road in a selfish attempt to return home and catch whatever null feelings await them there. For them, not taking the extra second to pull over matters more than anything. For them, an extra second is the difference between catching or missing the opening credits of their favorite show. For them, an extra second is the difference between being on time or tardy for a dinner date. So they press on forward. But for me, the extra second was the life of a woman. A woman being abused. A woman being scarred. A woman being raped. Yet I dare not endanger a life unless it is for the most righteous of reasons.
"My reason was righteous," I thought, "but not worth the lives of those many in the cars, however selfish they may be."
So I let them pass by, I let them keep their one extra second. Finally they are gone and I speed around the man in front of me, with the only possible reason for his appreciation of a slow speed being that he wanted to miss the bland cooking of his wife when he arrived home. I pass through the gas station, no longer allowing a care as to what may qualify as a road and what may not. I drift into the the junkyard. As I exit...
"BANG!"
I stood in horror, yet the world continues on...
"BANG!"
The woman I was responsible for, the woman who needed me, fell to the dirt. I draw my weapon and numbly pull out shots of anger into the chest of the monster. He too suffers the fate of his once vivacious prey. I call in for help, neigh I cry for help. But to no avail. Slowly, I approach the woman. The only thing that surrounded her now limp body, other than the dust that lent no praise to her soul, were the broken fragment of her once beautiful face. She was gone. I fell to my knees, as broken as she was. The air turned freezing, yet I did not move, I did not shiver, I did not cry. I stood up and did my job. I did not give up. I did not take the extra second for myself. What if it was me stuck in a burning wreck? What if it was my wife being raped? What if it was my daughter?...
If it was you, would you want others to pull over, would you want them to take that extra second from you?
Not taking the extra second to pull over is taking a life. Yield to emergency vehicles, because next time... It could be you.
What is the aim of this change/addition:It was getting dark and the sun rested not below the clouds, slowly sinking into the quicksand-horizon. I had received a 911 dispatch of a 261 (Rape) in progress out at the junk yard. I pulled out of the PD and announced my response. Above me, lights blue and red battled in a frenzy, flashes pull darkness down as they begin to take it's place. Sounds wailed from my car, crying out a tune that could only mean that a person was in need, a human life was in the balance.
I turned onto the highway and sped down an empty road at full speed. I was needed. I had a duty. As I approached the bridge, eager to help, a large vehicle took up my lane. I look left, but filing into my alternate route stampeded a pride of vehicles, prancing down the narrow road in a selfish attempt to return home and catch whatever null feelings await them there. For them, not taking the extra second to pull over matters more than anything. For them, an extra second is the difference between catching or missing the opening credits of their favorite show. For them, an extra second is the difference between being on time or tardy for a dinner date. So they press on forward. But for me, the extra second was the life of a woman. A woman being abused. A woman being scarred. A woman being raped. Yet I dare not endanger a life unless it is for the most righteous of reasons.
"My reason was righteous," I thought, "but not worth the lives of those many in the cars, however selfish they may be."
So I let them pass by, I let them keep their one extra second. Finally they are gone and I speed around the man in front of me, with the only possible reason for his appreciation of a slow speed being that he wanted to miss the bland cooking of his wife when he arrived home. I pass through the gas station, no longer allowing a care as to what may qualify as a road and what may not. I drift into the the junkyard. As I exit...
"BANG!"
I stood in horror, yet the world continues on...
"BANG!"
The woman I was responsible for, the woman who needed me, fell to the dirt. I draw my weapon and numbly pull out shots of anger into the chest of the monster. He too suffers the fate of his once vivacious prey. I call in for help, neigh I cry for help. But to no avail. Slowly, I approach the woman. The only thing that surrounded her now limp body, other than the dust that lent no praise to her soul, were the broken fragment of her once beautiful face. She was gone. I fell to my knees, as broken as she was. The air turned freezing, yet I did not move, I did not shiver, I did not cry. I stood up and did my job. I did not give up. I did not take the extra second for myself. What if it was me stuck in a burning wreck? What if it was my wife being raped? What if it was my daughter?...
If it was you, would you want others to pull over, would you want them to take that extra second from you?
Not taking the extra second to pull over is taking a life. Yield to emergency vehicles, because next time... It could be you.
The implementation of a harsher punishment would better incentivise people to pull take the extra second to pull over and thus help improve response time, saving lives.
Additional Information:
No add.
