If a tractor trailer is dropping small rocks onto the freeway, should you call 911?
Q. While driving on the eastbound 91 Freeway in Anaheim Hills, a refrigerated tractor trailer was leaking water from the back door – it was like a waterfall, very heavy. I was debating whether to call 911; it was not really an emergency. Then a few miles ahead there was an empty dump truck, which did not have a net on. My car was getting pelted with small rocks, and dust was still coming out of the truck’s back. Should I have called 911 for that? It wasn’t really a emergency, either.
– Mario Luna, Anaheim
A. Pass on calling 911 for the water leakage, unless it is creating a driving hazard, says Officer Tino Olivera, who patrols that stretch for the California Highway Patrol.
But the rock-dropping truck is different.
“Always call 911 for that,” Olivera said. “So we can send a CHP (officer) on scene and stop that vehicle. …
“It can damage your car.”
Q. As I understand it, if you are driving a car in the same lane with a bicycle, you cannot pass them unless there is at least a second lane or there is a car lane and a bicycle lane. Is that correct? And do cyclists have to obey traffic laws?
– Mary Jean Pedneau, Yorba Linda
A. First off, bicyclists indeed must adhere to many of the same laws that those in cars, trucks and motorcycles must follow. They must halt at stop signs and red lights and roll along in the same direction as horseless carriages. They must be sober, too.
Under state law, a bike is a vehicle, “so they are supposed to be abiding by traffic laws,” said Officer Duane Graham, a California Highway Patrol officer and spokesman based out of the Westminster office.
Now, to pass bicyclists in your lane, you must give them a three-foot bubble of space, going into the opposing lane, if allowed, to safely pass, Graham explained.
But let’s say the street is divided by double-yellow lines, and your car can’t get around the bicyclist with that three-foot cushion. Under California law, the driver can slow down to a reasonable speed and slip by closer, if careful.
Honkin’ funny: Reader Nicholas Berger sent the following along, Honk got a good chuckle out of it, and he hopes you get one too. It goes something like this:
A cop sees a car crawling along the 22 Freeway and pulls it over. Two friends are in the back, frightened.
The officer tells the driver he is going too slow, and the man says he was going the speed limit that is posted on the signs: 22 mph.
No, the officer explains, that is the name of the freeway. The cop then asks the driver’s friends why they are so scared.
The driver responds for them: “We just got off of the 110.”
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