A Voice of Warning

It was a warm summer evening just after midnight and I was working traffic enforcement. Another officer was also assigned to work the same stretch of highway. We focused on this highway because the police department had received complaints from several people that many other motorists were creating dangerous driving conditions by speeding and weaving in and out of traffic at very high speeds in the early morning hours. Also, I had investigated a fatal pedestrian accident a week earlier. A man had walked out of a bar, and having his judgment impaired by alcohol consumption attempted to cross all four lanes of traffic to reach his vehicle. He was DOA (dead on arrival) when I arrived and his life blood was filling the gutter.

I set up my radar in a 55 mph zone just outside an industrial area where shift workers would be getting off work at midnight. My partner set up his radar unit about 5 miles from me just before traffic would enter the business area where the pedestrian had been killed a week earlier.

During my shift that evening, I had issued a couple of citations to drivers for speeding 20 or more miles per hour over the speed limit. I had just gotten back into position when my radar screen lit up and the miles per hour speed reader started climbing. It went from 65 to 75, 85 to 95, and kept climbing to 105. I honestly thought my radar unit had malfunctioned so I reset it. I realized my radar unit was functioning properly and that the car coming toward me was now traveling at 125 miles per hour! I felt that there was no way I would be able to catch this speeding motorist with the quality of cruiser I was driving. I set the radar when the oncoming motorist’s speed reached 125 mph and then threw on the overhead lights before he reached my position in an attempt to slow him down so I would be able to catch up to him. It worked and he began to slow down, but it still took me a couple miles to catch him.

He was driving a customized El Camino. After I issued him a citation for driving 125 mph in a 55 mph zone and affixed a bail of $550 I warned him that my partner was also working radar a couple of miles farther up the road and that he should obey the speed limit of 55 mph. He called me a (profanity) liar and left. About 15 minutes later my partner called me on the radio stating he had just stopped an El Camino traveling 115 mph and that the driver tried to get out of receiving another citation by showing him the one I had just issued him. My partner informed me that he issued him another citation and set the court date for his citation at the same time I cited the driver into court. We never went to court to testify because the driver pled guilty, had his license suspended for one year, and was fined more than $1,000.

It would have been much better for this motorist had he listened to my voice of warning and reduced his speed to 55 mph to avoid the second citation, the loss of his driving privileges for a year and a fine of more than $1,000. In our daily lives we are warned by living prophets to conduct our lives in conformity with the teachings of Jesus Christ.                    
                                                           President Thomas S. Monson

I know Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet of the Lord and that we should all listen to his counsel and heed his warnings. Click here for more information about true prophets that warn us to following the teachings of Jesus Christ. mormon.org or lds.org

Doctrine and Covenants 88:81 - Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor.