{"id":10828,"date":"2010-11-19T13:02:17","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T21:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiken.wpengine.com\/news\/this-traffic-stop-beat-the-alternative-editors-note\/"},"modified":"2016-10-22T22:45:44","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T05:45:44","slug":"this-traffic-stop-beat-the-alternative-editors-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/opinion\/this-traffic-stop-beat-the-alternative-editors-note\/","title":{"rendered":"This traffic stop beat the alternative: Editor’s Note"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a real-life experience similar to that recently described in Kent Reporter,<\/a> where a woman was pulled over for drunk driving, but was in fact sober. A couple of years ago, I was pulled over on Interstate 5 by a Washington State Patrol trooper, for what he suspected was drinking and driving.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t drunk \u2013 I was just plain exhausted after playing all day in a sports tourney, and my driving looked a tad erratic.<\/p>\n

And just like Burien resident Lynn Pittier, who failed her field-sobriety tests, I failed mine too. In my case it was partly because my balance was bad from overworked leg muscles, and partly because I have trouble walking in a straight line on even a good day.<\/p>\n

So things were not looking good for me at that point on a cold March afternoon along I-5. Fortunately, my trooper had a breathalyzer with him, and I blew a zero. I think he looked a little like Christmas had been canceled, but he was extremely polite and let me off with a warning.<\/p>\n

Granted, it was not one of my best moments. I was totally rattled from my near-miss at getting a ride to wherever WSP takes its suspected drunks. I was frustrated, and actually went as far to talk about that in a previous column.<\/p>\n

But you know what? I\u2019m glad that trooper had the presence of mind to pull me over. While I didn\u2019t enjoy the experience one bit, it wasn\u2019t about me. It was about him doing the best he could to keep our roads safe.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d rather be pulled over on suspicion of something, than face the very real risk of getting hit by a drunk driver.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen it from that side too \u2013 having been involved in a wreck with a drunk driver that destroyed my car and left me shaken. There were weeks of flashbacks, and my beautiful Avalon luxury sedan was no more. I now drive a teeny Hyundai \u2013 I never could afford to replace my Avalon.<\/p>\n

I wish that WSP officer \u2013 and the one who stopped Ms. Pittier \u2013 could have been on the road that night.<\/p>\n

The bottom line here? That we should be grateful we have officers out there watching for us. I\u2019d rather have the inconvenience of a traffic stop than the reality of a destroyed car or fatality.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the price we pay for having police who do their jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a real-life experience similar to that recently described in the Kent Reporter, where a woman was pulled over for drunk driving, but was in fact sober. A couple of years ago, I was pulled over on Interstate 5 by a Washington State Patrol trooper, for what he suspected was drinking and driving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10828"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}