Why cops swerve on freeway

Thorne Memorial — Trooper Randy K. Ingram Memorial — Lt. Traffic Slow Downs Watch a video demonstration of a slow down Over the years we have had many phone calls asking why troopers are driving slowly, swerving back and forth or straddling the lane divider. First: Be aware of what is going on around you. Essentially, a traffic break is the creation of traffic separation by a traffic patrol officer slowly swerving back and forth across all lanes of a highway, not allowing other vehicles to pass.

Traffic breaks are typically created in order to clear dangerous areas from traffic. They are a very rare occurrence however, and are only performed if absolutely necessary. If an accident occurs on a highway, there will likely be debris on the road.

To clear this debris, traffic breaks alleviate vehicles from endangering traffic patrol officers, or whoever is in charge of clearing the wreckage site. Sometimes a traffic break can be used to allow a stalling vehicle to safely shift over to the shoulder of the highway. In much more rare cases, traffic breaks can occur in order to clear highways for police chase purposes. A get away-vehicle or hit-and-run car is a danger to themselves and others.

For this reason, police are known to clear road ways for the interest of public safety, if an unlawful driver is out of control. A traffic break has even been performed for the sake of helping an airplane emergency land on a highway. The primary intent of traffic patrol officers during a traffic break is to keep traffic flowing. If you are at the front of a traffic break group of vehicles, you will notice a police car or motorcycle swerving across all highway lanes in front of you.

Drivers don't slow down when there's a CHP car or motorcycle on the highway shoulder with lights flashing, Ramsey said. But vehicles don't always heed the warnings to slow down and often speed ahead of the round robin. In these cases the officer continues on with the maneuver but radios ahead for another officer to pull the scofflaw over, Ramsey said. Speeding ahead of round robins not only puts a driver in danger of an obstacle ahead, he said, but also risks the safety of the officer who's slowing down traffic.

Submit your questions about crime, safety and criminal justice to Staff Writer Nick Rahaim at or nick. On Twitter nrahaim. CrimeBeat: Why do police swerve across multiple lanes to slow down traffic? While it may seem random, it's always used to address a traffic issue ahead.