KY State Trooper's Stark Warning

Several years ago, I was driving to Nashville to do a live broadcast at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. It was raining, and, as usual, Interstate 65 was a nightmare.

THE NIGHTMARE OF INTERSTATE 65

At the bottom of that downgrade past the Ridgetop, Tennessee exit, the highway curves a bit. I was in the left lane behind a big box truck that had slowed down--what I consider to be a no-no, especially on an interstate highway. I was able to move back into the right lane, but as I did, traffic was rounding that curve and there was a Tennessee state trooper who had pulled a motorist over. I mean, he was RIGHT there and I didn't see him until I got around the truck.

About a half-mile down the road, that trooper caught up with me and pulled ME over.

SLOW DOWN AND MOVE OVER

He said he'd noticed I was from Kentucky and asked if I knew we had "pull over and slow down" laws here with regards to emergency vehicles. I told him that I honestly did not know but that I always do that anyway.

He then told me that it had become a sensitive issue in Tennessee since, the week before, a trooper had been killed on Interstate 40 between Nashville and Memphis when a driver slammed into him during a routine stop. Horrific.

I offered my condolences and told him that I didn't see him until I got around that box truck and there he was and I couldn't get back over. We talked a bit about the fact that I worked at a radio station--I was in a WBKR vehicle--then he let me go.

A KENTUCKY STATE TROOPER'S CLOSE CALL

I was reminded of that story when I saw a Facebook post from a Kentucky state trooper who was posting about the one-year anniversary of an accident in which a vehicle slammed into her cruiser while she was working ANOTHER accident.

We're thankful that Trooper Burgess wasn't seriously hurt, but she absolutely could have been. And really, when I see ANY vehicle on the shoulder, I slow down or move into the other lane.

You just never know if someone's going to climb out of it at just the wrong time.

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