Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by erikthered There is no requirement to provide a driver's license to a police officer or a sheriff's deputy if you aren't operating a motor vehicle at the time you are questioned. I don't know what information rail road company ID's provide, but I assume they have the basics- name, and date of birth. That's enough to verify identity. It's also enough, most of the time, to insure there are no warrants outstanding against the individual questioned. (Locomotive engineers are not any different from other human beings... sometimes even they have something to hide.) In the accident investigations I have participated in, I have seen people provide false identitites- usually because they are hiding something, like a suspended license or an outstanding warrant. Criminals do this on a routine basis. Frankly, in train vs. automobile accidents, I know enough to draw much the same conclusion this Sheriff did. Yet, to protect everyone in this case, it's important to have full and complete information on all participants. I would not be surprised if the engineer was not requested to take a Drager breathalyser test to determine if he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. (It's standard procedure.) He could refuse to take the test, of course; but his driving priveleges (as in automobile driving) would be suspended in this state (Alabama). I empathize with locomotive engineers in most cases. I also empathize with truck drivers involved in fatalities where the fault is clearly the other participant in the accident. As a cop, it's not going to stop me from asking questions about causes of the accident. It's not going to stop me from attempting to rule out all contributory factors to an accident. One of those contributory factors would be the state of mind (impaired or not?) of the participants. Investigators ask insensitive questions. Cops act insensitively at times. The reason is usually because the quicker information is obtained, the faster a case can be cleared. I believe the engineer had nothing to hide in this case. As Ed said, we weren't there. It IS unusual behavior to refuse to even give your name to a police officer when you have been in an accident. Erik [/quote] Erik- I'd love to be the attorney representing the engineer after an officer tried to make him take a Drager Alcotest. That is a clear cut civil rights violation. Federal Regulations clearly set forth how drug and alcohol testing is to be handled post accident for railroad crew members. FRA even provides the test kits which railroads must obtain from the FRA mandated lab. If the state were to take any action based upon a test or refusal there would be grounds for a significant lawsuit. I wouldn't want to be the officer in that case. Keep in mind that I am someone who has been a police officer, prosecutor and locomotive engineer and has defended police officers in civil rights suits. Also, officers need to keep in mind that the giving of information to police in these cases has resulted in engineers having driver's license and insurance issues more than once. So what would otherwise be a simple name and DOB request can create BIG problems. Unfortunately, there are plenty of engineers out there who have had run ins with the cops in their lives and don't have the patience or temperament to explain this to the police. Mix that with an officer who doesn't like to be told "no" and you have a potential for problems, like the one in this case. The FRA has EXCLUSIVE jurisdiction over railroad safety. This has been long established in Statutes and Regulations and the courts. That means that even though the tracks run through a police officer's jurisdiction, what happens on those tracks including ALL railroad operations are beyond his jurisdiction and are the jurisdiction of railroad police and the FRA. LC
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag