News, Hudson, Wis., After lights, sirens on I-94, lots of questions. (actor, street)

[John1960]

A state trooper rammed a Hudson, Wis., man's van on New Year's Eve and arrested him for fleeing a traffic stop because he did not quickly pull over. The driver, who had his kids along, says he was looking for a safe place to stop.

After lights, sirens on I-94, lots of questions

[sapphire-rose]

Officer over reacted IMO. There have been many warniings that stopping on a highway shoulder for any reason has caused many deaths/injuries due to on-coming traffic. I would have done the exact same as Mr. S. did. especially with children in his vehicle.

[Nelly Nomad]

From what I can see, I agree with Sapphire. The officer over-reacted. The officer says Salter kept "driving and driving and driving". However, it was only one mile and on the highway, that amounts to what, 60-75 seconds? And he was slowing down. Don't people tend to speed up when fleeing?

The officer started lights and sirens while Salter was the far left lane. His first reaction was, understandably, to merge right so the officer could get around. When she didn't go around but instead merged over with him, he knew she was after him, so he started looking for someplace safe to pull over. In my opinion, not unreasonable.

Once they got streetside, he obviously was in the process of pulling over. He had on his signal and had slowed down to about 5-10mph. I'm not sure what purpose ramming the vehicle served. It just seemed like a "take THAT" gesture.

Many of the comments on the article said he shouldn't have jumped out of the car because that raises a red-flag to police officers. Well, if you haven't ever had that experience, how would you know? If someone rammed my car, even if it was an officer, my first instinct may very well be the same as his: jump out and see why they did it.

My only fault to the driver would be perhaps he should have put on his hazard lights rather than just the directional signal. That would indicate to the officer that he did, indeed, see her and was intending to work with her. Additionally, I might have stopped on the side of the exit ramp rather than going all the way to the street. But if he had kids in the car and the ramp was dark and he wasn't sure of the siding (is it sloped? Could the car topple off?), that may have factored in his decision to continue to the actual street.

In all, I agree, the officer over-reacted. On the other hand, had he not been speeding (and with children in the car, no less!) and driving a tad irratically (weaving), none of this would have happened.