Dear Mahatma: Of Trooper Chapman I would inquire about a nighttime stop. To her meaningful comments, I would add turning on interior lights if you are stopped after dark. When my wife and I approached a Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 10 in south Texas, I turned on the interiors before reaching the stopping point. The officer thanked me. -- Light on the Subject
Dear Light: You refer to last week's column and Trooper Liz Chapman of the Arkansas State Police. She answered a question about what motorists should do when stopped by police. Fundamentally, remain in the driver's seat, hands on top of the steering wheel, eyes forward, until the officer tells you what to do. Movement of any kind signals danger. Don't get out of the car.
Darkness changes things, Chapman said. Just like movement, darkness is dangerous -- and police are generally taught to be more aware at night.
A driver pulled over at night should know:
• Police will turn on all the lights they have to illuminate the vehicle and its occupants. Police need to see anything and everything that could be a danger.
• A driver who does not feel safe pulling over on a dark roadway may turn on his hazard lights. Slow down and drive to the nearest lit area such as a service station or exit ramp. The most important part of this is to slow down so the officer knows you see him.
• A driver may turn on his interior lights once he comes to a stop, after which it's essential to place hands on the steering wheel. Sometimes, an officer will tell a driver to turn on the interior lights for safety, such as when a driver has to dig into a glove box for registration and insurance information.
"I do want to say how grateful I am for the public's questions about this subject," Chapman said. "The more you know, the better prepared you will be, and I assure you every law enforcement officer appreciates each individual who cooperates and is educated on the right things to do when it comes to traffic stop procedure."
Dear Mahatma: Interstate 55 southbound at the Arkansas-Missouri border has a large sign, "Welcome to Arkansas." Behind the sign is an abandoned weigh station, cluttered with overgrown vegetation and litter. What a shame! -- Gentle Reader
Dear Gentle: We asked the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
We're told the site was used by a construction contractor a while back and there were construction materials stored there during the project. The materials should have been cleaned up before now, but the contractor was a bit slow.
The department recently placed some added emphasis on final cleanup. The contractor has complied. This allowed the agency to also clean up the area. Most of this work has been accomplished in the past couple of weeks. There is still some light trimming to perform on the shrubs around the "Welcome to Arkansas" sign, work that's imminent.
Fjfellone@gmail.com
Metro on 09/16/2017