The Benefits Of Situational Awareness & Good Vision

    Along I-15 in west central Utah, the speed limit was increased to 80 miles per hour a little over a decade ago (this change was made on a number of rural highway corridors throughout the state of Utah, but this is the only stretch of the legal 80 mph I've experienced). Eighty miles an hour is fairly fast, but evidently it is not fast enough, as I passed several vehicles pulled over by Utah State Troopers as RL and I cruised west.

   

   Along one isolated, lonely stretch of a mostly downhill run, I noticed what I thought was an SUV parked on the highway median about half a mile in front of us. I mentioned it to RL and he said that I must be seeing things as he couldn't see anything even slightly resembling a vehicle of any sort parked on the median or anywhere else ahead of us, just scrub and the occasional rock. However, after about ten seconds more of driving he remarked, "Oh yeah, I see it now, looks like a cop." (not verbatim, words to the effect).

   At the same time he made that remark a car blew right past us, and had to be going at least a 100mph. I said, "Huh, looks like that driver hasn't spotted the cop yet." (not verbatim, words to the effect).  

   Which became something of a prophetic statement, for as we got closer to the vehicle parked on the median we could clearly see the lights on top of the cruiser as well as the Beehive logo of the Utah Highway Patrol emblazoned on it's door - but evidently the driver that had zoom zoomed past us still hadn't as we didn't see even the slightest hint of a brake light tap. That car just kept charging along at 100mph plus.

   The Utah Highway Patrol is not known for being indifferent to speeders so it was no surprise to us to see the trooper light up and pull out onto the highway in hot pursuit. We followed the chase for a little over two miles (from a safe distance, 'natch) before it came to an end when the speeder pulled over for the trooper. As we passed them I caught sight of the driver of the speeding vehicle resting his forehead on the his steering wheel in a gesture of utter defeat.

   So, lessons learned, 80mph is plenty fast enough for driving through Utah, and those white blocky looking things on the median are not rocks.