There are certain traffic offenses that I will give people a pass on (both for cars and pedestrians). I mean, I would be a big fat hypocrite if I got mad at speeders, jaywalkers and people who punch it through yellow lights. You want to cross where there’s no crosswalk? As long as you’re being smart about (ie. don’t run in front of my car or I will flip you off with the flurry of a thousand angry middle fingers), I couldn’t really care less. However, there is one rule of the road that you had better follow or you will forever be branded a douche-bag in my mind and I will have absolutely no sympathy for you if you are caught and ticketed. In fact, I might just do a gleeful little dance on behalf of your citation.
I’m talking about people who cut off funeral processions.
Sure, we’ve all known someone who didn’t notice all of the daytime headlights and ignorantly cut in on the highway. I would argue that absentmindedness of that level would indicate that maybe, just maybe you need to start paying better attention when behind the wheel, but it’s not a particularly malicious act. People who purposefully would do such a thing? I hate you. I really hate you. And I haven’t even really been to all that many funerals. I just hate you on principle.
I mean, here we have a long line of cars of people who are mourning. They have lost a loved one. Somebody fucking died. And some asshole comes along and makes their day that much worse by cutting them off and disrupting the procession. Talk about kicking people while they’re down. I find it unconscionable.
Sure, it’s annoying to have to wait for a long line of cars to go by, especially if you’re late for something. And, I really do wish that more people would carpool. An awful lot of those cars usually have one, maybe two people in it. But, really, I figure as hard as my day might be and what a pain waiting is, it just doesn’t compare to burying a loved one. Anything you can do to make that monumentally awful task just a little bit easier should really be a no-brainer. Give a hoot, let funeral processions go by in peace.
What set off this little tirade of mine? I was walking to work today and, while waiting for a funeral procession to pass, I watched a girl walk right into the middle of it, forcing everyone to slow down and cutting them off from the cars that had already passed by (including the fricking hearse). I wanted to yell out, “Hey chickie, just because you have a walk signal, that doesn’t mean that you can cut off a funeral. Back the fuck up.” But, I’m a pussy and prefer to rant about people on my blog instead of confronting them. You might call it passive-aggressive. I suppose that I would agree with you. Also, I tend to get really shocked at the fact that people can be that self-centered and then I clam up out of pure disbelief.
Luckily, the woman in the car who got cut off had a little more presence of mind than me and yelled out, “Move it you idiot, this is a funeral procession.” Always late to the game, I nodded my head and told the girl, “She’s right, you know.” I know, zinnnnnng, right? I bet that girl will be up all night shaking with anger and embarrassment, replaying my mighty words.
I hope she cries.
Around here, funerals usually have a police escort that blocks off traffic. Along with some other way to mark the cars, like “funeral” flags that attach to the car window. So many cars have daytime running lights now, it’s sometimes hard to tell what is going on, especially if you come up on a long procession and the hearse is already out of view.
The one that really gets me is ambulances. I will see people pull off the road for a funeral, when they weren’t in the way, just as a sign of “respect”, but they will ignore an ambulance with its lights on. Someone could be dying in there! Seconds can be the difference between living and dying!
I should add that these cars all had giant orange flags on them that said FUNERAL. So, there was really no excuse!
Yeah, the funeral flags make it pretty obvious!
Sheesh. I was walking in DC once and this ambulance was trying to get through traffic, and the cars were pulling themselves up onto the curb to get out of the way. The guy standing next to me and myself were the ONLY pedestrians to wait and not cross the street. The rest the just walked into the crosswalk, and then looked shocked when the ambulance almost ran them over. You know the siren was the first hint. They made me so mad. The dude and I shared a look and then promptly we both rolled our eyes in disgust.
I feel a little insensitive saying this, but I am not sure I agree with funeral processions blatantly disregarding traffic laws just because they are in a procession. It’s not that I don’t respect what they’re doing, but I do think it’s sort of dangerous to run a stream of cars through an intersection against lights, cross-walk signals etc. If another car came through obeying traffic as usual, it could become disastrous really quickly, just as if any other car drove through the light against traffic.
I guess in the other examples, where there are police escorts and so on, it makes a little more sense, but I see smaller processions around town and I always worry that someone is going to get creamed. Either way, cutting them off is jerky though.
apparently in mass its illegal to pass or cut off a funeral possession. and its AWESOME. I was in a funeral procession last year that was almost a mile long, bicyclists kept trying to pass the procession and cops kept forcing them to stop, one cop actually started screaming at one dude when he didn’t stop and threatened to arrest him!
we all cheered 🙂