What the hell is up with all the stopping on I-70 from Denver? (buy, auction)

[CrownVic95]

I don't have any first-hand knowledge on this subject, but clearly there is huge potential for abuse here. And wherever there is huge potential for abuse, there is abuse.

These articles are disturbing to say the least.

[TonyVaz1009]

I just drove through Kansas coming back to school from a visit home in CO last weekend, and I only saw a pair of cops sitting in the median in WaKeeney. However, my trip was mostly at night so maybe that had something to do with the absense of cops.

Honestly, the HP along I-70 in Kansas isn't as bad as what people make it out to be, nowadays. In my first 2 years or so of high school, being brought between OK and CO between parents' homes, I noticed countless Kansas HP cars waiting BEHIND overpass hills, compeltely out of sight. It was ridiculous. But now it seems as if they're not nearly as common.

The HP in Colorado have always been patrolling the highway less than Kansas, maybe because the limit there is 75. It's blatantly obvous that Kansas' limit of 70MPH on I-70 is purely for revenue from the people who drive through thinking "I'm in the middle of nowhere, why not go 80?" Just like in the Texas panhandle, with 70 and 65/night. Which is insanely ridiculous, but that's another issue...

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by cp1969

All I did was a Google search on 'property confiscation.' That seemed like the easiest read of the bunch. So, no I am not a 'reader' of whatever that site is nor am I a reader of National Enquirer but thanks for asking anyway.

Well, that's part of the problem. People don't look critically at what passes for "news" and then make the ridiculous claim that cops are just randomly stopping people left and right and stealing their stuff.

Let's see if this link ruffles fewer feathers:
frontline: drug wars: special reports: reining in forfeiture | PBS
Note the quote by Claire McCaskill: "Forfeiture is as American as apple pie."

That's a more believable source. But its focus seems to be more on the reformation of the laws that we're talking about. Making it less likely that an innocent person will have their stuff confiscated.

So, there ya go ...

[kcmo]

If samantha doesn't see it, then it's made up lies. This has been demonstrated many times over in the KC forums!

I will say that I have driven all over KS and I mean all over. My last job took me to most small towns and counties in the state where I did highway engineering contract work via Kdot for counties that had no local traffic planners to do it themselves. I also drove to Denver twice a year for 15 years and drove through KS via 35, 54 and 70 countless times in my travels throughout the rest of the country.

I drive very fast and aggressive and sometimes have little patience in small towns or rural areas.

I have never been pulled over in Kansas outside of KC. I got a speeding ticket in Olathe on 35 once and a speeding ticket on 670 in KCK once, but both were deserved. I was speeding.

Cops seem to be about the same everywhere and I'm sure you will run into bad cops in any state or any city as well, but most are just doing their job.

[Gnutella]

Sometimes, you will find that a random cow breached the barbed-wire fence that separates its familiar pasture from the unforgiving right of way for the Interstate highway. It seems that many cows -- Holsteins, in particular -- are smitten by the sunflowers that grow in the medians of all the Interstate highways in Kansas, and take it upon themselves to meander across the travel lanes in their typical, slowly spasmodic gait, whereupon they smell the sunflowers and eat the seeds.

Occasionally, fast-traveling automobiles will have to apply their brakes and perform sudden emergency maneuvers in order to avoid these roving cattle, and many of these automobiles will indeed find themselves lying upside-down or on their sides off the shallow embankments that the highways are built upon.

Unfortunately, the cows remain nonchalant to the plight of the helpless motorists who struggle to crawl from their twisted, burning automobiles, instead recommending that they "slow down and smell the sunflowers," or "eat mor chikin."

The resulting carnage -- both human and automotive -- creates long delays on the Interstates. Indeed, if the pilot of a small aeroplane flew directly overhead at sunset, he would describe what he saw as a taut string of vivid rubies, or diamonds, depending upon the direction from which he viewed the stalled traffic, extending across the lush plains toward the horizon, or WaKeeney, whichever may be closer.

This, my friend, is what occasionally causes motorists on the Interstates in Kansas to stop for what might seem, at the time, to be no apparent reason. But remember, there is always a reason for people to stop. In Kansas, that reason might be careless cattle with wanderlust.

[kcmo]

I have never seen a cow (alive or carnage) on the interstate right of way in KS (or anyplace). Is that really that common? Now deer is another story.

[grassnsky]

Originally Posted by kcmo

I have never seen a cow (alive or carnage) on the interstate right of way in KS (or anyplace). Is that really that common? Now deer is another story.

One time a couple of miles outside of Hutchinson (Highway 60/61?), I was driving into Hutch about dawn, still kind of dark out. I started to notice black clumps off of the road on both sides. As it started to get lighter out, i noticed that these black clumps were still appearing in the ditches. But now I realized that they were in fact calves. Over the course of a couple of miles, there were dead calves littering the sides of the highway everywhere. Legs sticking up in the air, dead stiff. I freaked out and told everyone to roll up the windows. I thought there was some kind of terrorist gas in the air or something. Come to find out, just a bunch of calves got out of a pasture and were just being struck thru the night. It was wierd though, cause i didnt see any cops or wrecked cars. Just dead calves everywhere.

[kcmo]

^ I can see that happening. But interstates are pretty secure with fencing and what not. Deer will sometimes get through or jump those barriers, but cows, even if they do get free (which would be rare I would assume) probably wouldn't hop the interstate fences.

Speaking of this and way off topic, but does anybody watch the Ice Road Truckers in India (on history channel)? What an amazing and interesting show. Now they have cows just wondering around everywhere, from rural mountain highways to urban city streets. It's crazy.

[grassnsky]

Do you remember a few years ago, when a Dad was driving on I-70 outside of KC and a deer ran out in front of him, went thru his windshield and freaking decapated him? What was worse, was his mini van was full of his kids and his kids' teamates. Worse than that, I actually think it was on Fathers Day.

Have not seen the show. But Icy Roads AND India seem kind of strange to me.

[kcmo]

Deer freak me out. The best thing to do is to run them over though. Most people die when they try to avoid them and hit a tree or another car head on or roll over. Just hit the deer and duck incase it does come through your windshield, but they will usually go over the top or off to the side of your car. Just don't hit a tree going 65mph to avoid a deer!

Well, yea, they took the truck drivers from the show "ice road truckers" way up in northern Canada etc (which I don't watch) and put them in India to see if they can make it there. It really is amazing how chaotic and dangerous it really is over there.