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Injured trooper runs after and catches alleged drunk who plowed into his cruiser

Cruiser and car damaged in Rte. 128 crash

Back of cruiser, front of car. Photos by State Police.

State Police report a trooper overseeing roadwork on Rte. 128 northbound in Burlington suffered injuries Sunday night when an Andover man drove into the back of the cruiser he was sitting in.

State Police say Robert Cambria, 55, of Andover, got out of his vehicle and tried to run away from the scene at the Rte. 3 exit, but the trooper also got out, and despite a leg injury, managed to run after and catch him.

Cambria was charged with OUI, State Police say.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

Awww.. the poor marginalized drunk driver.

Maybe we should look into his past to see what brought him to this choice that was thrust upon him.

(sarcasm off)

The minute you decide to possess a gun that you should by no means possess, wait, I mean the minute you start drinking is NOT the minute you are absolved of anything you do afterwards.

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Nobody is absolving this drunk driver of his responsibility, and nobody in that other thread, where the subject used a gun, is absolving that guy of his responsibility. Likewise, nobody is absolving capecodpiece of being what he is.

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But your sarcasm is not far off from how drunk drivers are treated in this country. Drunk drivers aren't given serious jail time. Even if a drunk driver kills someone they typically only serve a couple years. This driver will not have his license terminated. He will legally be behind the wheel again soon even though he has proven to be a danger and driving is supposed to be treated as a privilege and not a right. No one tries to strip drunk drivers of their humanity and call them animals who deserve to be killed despite the fact that drunk drivers kill thousands of people in this country every year.

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What if the driver were texting? They'd receive an even more lenient penalty. But we judge drinkers in this country more harshly than those who simply don't pay attention to where they're going.

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This driver will not have his license terminated.

Are you sure about this?

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If you're not lucky enough to be driving a cruiser, don't expect much to happen to the drunk. It's far too easy to get the intoxication charges dismissed and then he's just looking at normal insurance loses due to the crash.

The fact he hit a cop means they'll go after him with assault and battery of a police officer and that's a far worse charge than OUI anyway.

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police that are pulled over should turn off the flashing lights and just leave them on - bright and easily visible.*

*I don't know for sure that this officer had flashing lights on but I think it is a reasonable assumption.

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Do you have any information to share - something that we can read on the subject?

I keep hearing this assertion about light brightness and flashing regarding bike lights and emergency vehicles, and I'm interested in the basis for such statements​. Is there any actual cognitive research behind this that indicates that one is actually better? Any stats before or after these high brightness lights became popular?

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(i.e. being drawn to a light source in the dark). However, all research I've read on this has been largely inconclusive. And I've never seen any research that suggests that drunks are more susceptible to this than sober drivers are.

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When I am driving past a pulled over police vehicle that has flashing lights, my vision is most certainly impacted. I obviously don't drive drunk and I don't know of any studies on the impact on strobe lights when someone is drunk and/or high.

http://hownabout.com/strobe-light-effects-on-vision/

Because of the way the human eye is built, there are many effects of strobe light on vision, ranging from the appearance of “slow motion” movement to temporary blindness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_blindness

Flash blindness is caused by bleaching (oversaturation) of the retinal pigment. As the pigment returns to normal, so too does sight. In daylight the eye's pupil constricts, thus reducing the amount of light entering after a flash. At night, the dark-adapted pupil is wide open so flash blindness has a greater effect and lasts longer.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/21/tactical-the-advantages-of-strobing-fl...

The phenomenon that occurs when a person experiences dizziness and confusion when exposed to strobe lighting was first identified by a Dr. Bucha in the 1950s when he was asked to investigate a series of unexplained helicopter crashes. After the crashes, surviving crew members said they experienced dizziness and disorientation from the strobing effect of rotating helicopter blades when viewed with the bright sunlight as the backdrop. The crews reported looking up at the sky with the rotors spinning above, creating the strobing effect that caused the disorientation. The rotor blades of the helicopter caused the sunlight to strobe in the eyes of the pilots, causing them to lose control of their machines.

http://www.pilotfriend.com/aeromed/medical/vision_and_flying.htm

Dark adaptation for optimal night-vision acuity approaches its maximum level in about 30 to 45 minutes under minimal lighting conditions. If the eyes are exposed to a bright light after dark adaptation, their sensitivity is temporarily impaired. The degree of impairment depends on the intensity and duration of the exposure. Brief flashes from high-intensity, white (xenon) strobe lights, which are commonly used as anti-collision lights on aircraft, have little effect on night vision. This is true because the energy pulses are of such short duration (milliseconds). Exposure to a flare or a searchlight longer than one second can seriously impair night vision. Depending on the brightness (intensity), duration of exposure, or repeated exposures, an aircrew member’s recovery time to regain complete dark adaptation could take from several minutes to the full 45 minutes or longer.

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The flash configurations on modern police lights are extremely disorienting, particularly when these lights are accompanied by lane shifts/closures and other tough to negotiate obstacles. I have trouble with them even without having had a sip of alcohol. They don't need to be in epileptic mode to announce the presence of a cop.

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most emergency lights are specifically not in "epileptic mode". i am not saying that they may not be visually discombobulating, but they are unlikely to cause seizures. studies have shown that the most common range for people with photosensitive epilepsy is lights that flash in the 5 - 40 Hz range. most emergency vehicles have a hertz range below this.

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5 Hz is pretty slow. Try tapping your finger 5 times per second.

I'd be very surprised if modern police lights were below 5 Hz.

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The policeman wasn't killed.

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Yet another police cruiser lost. This is why details are a waste. A barricade/arrow truck is designed for this. Flashing lights aren't shields captain.

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unless they have a special piece, called a truck mounted attenuator or TMA, attached. Because of the expense of TMAs, it is impractical to attach them to most pieces of equipment that may be in a highway work zone.

And, unlike a DOT or contractor's vehicle, a police cruiser with flashing blue lights is the most effective way to slow traffic down. That consideration is pretty important on a high speed roadway like I-95.

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CT and NH use barricade trucks. Why doesn't MassDOT (with a bigger budget than NH/CT combined) own any?

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The disco strobe lights on state troopers vehicles are so bad they cause seizures.
Thats right SEIZURES! They are outrageously obnoxious bright and strobing to the point of blinding. Until the cops turn down their disco lights this is going to keep happening.

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Because, reviewing such incidents, it's pretty obvious that the common denominator in such crashes is that the person is INTOXICATED, and not that they are subject to seizures.

Note that any flashing light has to meet specific Federal standards as to flash rate and intensity to prevent exactly that from happening.

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as a person with epilepsy, who can be triggered by visual patterns in lights, and who is around cops all the time, i have done a lot of research on this. i am not saying that it can't happen, but by and large it doesn't happen as often as one would think. the emergency light manufacturers do everything that they can to make this as safe as possible.

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