WINDOWS ON 
RED BANK

GREAT COP, BAD DRIVER

We all break driving rules at some time or another. Not coming to a full stop or racing to make it past the amber light before it turns red. Aggressive driving seems to be on the upturn.  I notice young girls in small Japanese cars whizzing by me from all sides on the Parkway and I am doing 70 mph. Yesterday morning as I was leaving my weekly LeTip meeting from the Holiday Inn in Eatontown turning left to go north on Hope Road I moved over to the extreme right lane to pass the cars turning left to the Parkway as everyone else does. As I passed three cars on the left of me I noticed a driver pulled over in front of me with a Cop talking to him. I waited patiently for him to finish so I could go on or so I thought. 

The Eatontown policeman was middle aged, glasses, gray hair and mustache. He turned and looked at me like an uncle looking at the dumbest nephew on earth…we stared at each other for a few seconds…he shook his head from side to side and pointed for me to pull over as well as the three cars behind me. A booming voice commanded "License, registration and insurance card." "Yes, Sir, what did I do?" "You are illegally passing on the right," he answered. I knew that. I was hoping it was all right to do it because we all did that all the time. I told him I had just come out of the Holiday Inn as I did every week. Once again I still got that dumb nephew look. "I watched you pass three cars on the right with a solid white line….Insurance card?" 

His personality was powerful; I had already pulled everything out of the glove compartment looking for the card. My hands were shaking….this guy was tough. I got the insurance card and held up a PBA card I was given. "Would this help?" I asked. "Not if the whole world can see it," he boomed. "Didn't the guy who gave it to you tell you how to use it?" Now I was shaking. "Is it signed?" he asked. Of course it was not. "Sign it," he said and examined my signature. "I am going to give you a warning…don't do this again." He sent me on my way. Still shaking I drove away thinking how glad I was he was on our side. What a great cop…commanding, strong, in charge…the type of cop you want when things go wrong. I wish he had been around later in the afternoon. 

Coming south on Bridge Ave a white van was really tailgating me, as I crossed West Front Street he hit the gas and tried to pass me on the right side. I was turning into my driveway and had to move into the middle of the street. As he wedged by we flipped each other the "bird." He drove twenty yards more and stopped in the middle of Bridge Ave. glaring in his rear view mirror. I got out of my car and glared back. With that he threw his van in reverse and proceeded to back up ten feet…right into the car of a little old lady that had stopped behind him. He got out of his van, tee shirt and burly, and started to walk towards me. I walked up to him in the middle of the street and asked, "Why did you do that, why did you tailgate me and pass on the right? Don't you know that is illegal?" With that he mumbled an expletive and went back to the accident. I called the police to tell them of the  accident. Our Red Bank cops are great but I was wishing the Eatontown cop would have shown up. He would have ripped him a new tailgate.