A few years ago I read an interesting book called Drive to Survive!.  While it may seem a bit paranoid to some readers, the most important lesson of the book was to apply the concepts of situational awareness to driving.  A driver should be in condition yellow at all times.  Slipping into condition white is an invitation to get into a wreck (“I didn’t see him…”).

When I did the ridealong with KPD last Friday I rode with the sergeant in charge of the evening shift.  KPD has a big black-and-white Ford Expedition that the sergeants use.  This particular sergeant called it “The Beast,” since it was a stock unit (didn’t have the police package) and was a bit anemic in terms of acceleration and handling. 

What surprised me was that despite the fact that the thing is huge and very visible, many drivers just didn’t seem to see it or realize that it was a police vehicle.  A few drivers did, and they were immediately obvious because they would slow down to a few miles under the speed limit when they realized we were behind them.  But most would just go ahead and do whatever they were going to do anyway. 

Where I’m going with all this is that missing a giant police SUV is a good sign that the driver is in condition white and is an accident waiting to happen.