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Jayplay

What I learned from my high-speed chase

By jayplayeditor

April 10, 2011

By Lindsey Siegele

When I was 18, I was part of a high-speed chase without realizing it. Worse still, I was the one being chased.

It was the summer before my first year of college, and I was driving my best friend, Sarah, to the University of Michigan to buy her textbooks. It was an hour-long drive, but I could make it in 45 minutes if I sped. So I did — but not just a little bit; I drove 90 mph for the first part of that drive.

We were listening to music and chatting, paying little attention to the world around us. At one point, I noticed a large white truck very close to the back end of my car. This guy, it seemed to me, wasn’t content to drive only 90 mph. I moved to the right lane, giving him the chance to go on his merry way.

He didn’t. For a few miles, I complained to Sarah that this jackass driver wouldn’t back off. What was his deal? I began (in yet another wise move) swerving between lanes and cars, attempting to shake my tailgater.

The thought occurred to me, much later than it should have, that the jackass in the white truck might be a police officer. “Shit,” I said to Sarah. “Is that a cop behind us?”

I felt the blood start pounding in my ears as she said, “Oh my God, Lindsey...” The truck had been so large and so close that its flashing lights weren’t visible in my rear-view mirror.

I had never been pulled over before, despite my affinity for reckless driving. My hands shook as I moved into the right lane and onto the shoulder.

A few moments later, a very angry woman in uniform appeared at my window. “Turn the music off,” she demanded. “Do you know how fast you were driving?”

“No,” I lied.

“90. You were driving 90. For 3 miles.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’d been driving 90 for many more than 3 miles.

After a lot of yelling, she handed me a ticket with so much satisfaction you’d think she’d just won the lottery. I felt the urge to congratulate her on catching a maniac like myself.

One whopping speeding ticket later, I slowed down my driving for several months. Then, in a far less dramatic way, I got another speeding ticket for driving 10 over.

I went to traffic school to avoid points on my license, and I’ve been a steady 5-over driver for the five years since.

A 5-over habit is hard to break, as I discovered in a recent article I wrote for Jayplay. I didn’t speed for an entire week, and the experience was more than a little bit annoying. Angry drivers would tailgate me as I attempted to pass semis. Slowing down to 20 to drive through the K-tag lane was brutal. Sometimes, I even felt unsafe driving the speed limit, as every other driver on the road zoomed by me, making my car shutter.

I talked to Lieutenant Robert Baker of the Kansas Highway Patrol, and he assured me that even us 5-over drivers aren’t safe from the eye of the law. “You can be pulled over for driving 5 over,” he said. “It doesn’t happen often, but we can technically pull you over for going 1 over.”

I’m not sure I’m convinced. I’ve never been pulled over while calmly driving past a police car at 75 mph. I am convinced, however, that the habit I had five years ago of driving 90 on the highway during rush hour was a terrible idea — one I’m lucky to have lived through.

In nearly one of every three fatal crashes, speeding is a factor, according to Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. In 2004 alone (the year in which my high-speed chase incident occurred), speeding-related accidents took 12,192 lives. I could have easily been one of those.

So, while the idea of driving at the precise speed limit for the rest of my life sounds like the cruelest form of punishment, I no longer have any urge to, as they say, “put the pedal to the metal.” My life is too important to risk on the chance that I might get to work two minutes earlier.

Comments

What I learned from my high-speed chase

I enjoyed this article.

What I learned from my high-speed chase

The problem is not that you're driving the speed limit but given that early in the article you admit that you were driving in the left lane, the problem is that you're not very bright. Stay in the right-hand lane and you won't be annoying people and they're less likely to annoy you.

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