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Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
Uncle Pays the Bills
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April 9th, 2010 at 8:56 am
I stop for them. My great-grandfather once told me it was the last thing you can ever do for someone. That’s enough for me, although I’m sure others might not agree.
April 9th, 2010 at 9:04 am
I do around home, but I know down in Chicago that’s a risky thing to do. For my father-in-law’s funeral, all those big-city pricks weren’t even paying attention. I was riding in the old man’s Model A, and almost got creamed by a municipal dumptruck.
April 9th, 2010 at 9:29 am
They don’t even stop for pedestrians here.
But then again our drivers are FAMOUS!
April 9th, 2010 at 9:44 am
I stop. Everyone where I’m from stopped. But here, sometimes people don’t even stop for an ambulance.
April 9th, 2010 at 10:23 am
I stop if it’s obvious it’s a funeral. Sometimes in New England you come around a corner to see a large line of cars and none are flagged as in a funeral, so you just assume it’s normal traffic. You usually get to the “oh shit” moment when you pass the cemetery or church where they are all stopping.
Cops aren’t very polite about it though, even if you obviously had reason not to know it was a funeral.
April 9th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Oh yeah, I stop.
April 9th, 2010 at 11:14 am
It depends sometimes on where it is. On a normal street, yes. On the opposite side of a 4-lane, like Main Street? Probably not, because it wouldn’t be safe. I do always turn my lights on, as a show of respect – something else my parents taught me.
I would never, ever, cut into or through a funeral procession like the example in that story – if I know that’s what it is. As Nylarthotep says, it’s not always obvious. It used to be that you could tell because everyone in the procession had their headlights on, but daytime running lights eliminated that signal, and they don’t always use the little window flags.
That’s everywhere.
April 9th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I do.
April 9th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
I just stay out of their way, but it wouldn’t occur to me to stop.
If a procession is crossing an intersection at 90 degrees to me, the accompanying police escort stop everyone at the intersection to allow the procession through.
Ambulances I sometimes pull over and stop (if there’s no other way to clear a lane for them), otherwise just pull over and slow down to let them pass.
April 9th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
The custom here is to stop for a funeral. Black, white, rich, or poor, it makes no difference. People who meet a funeral pull to the side of the road and stop. Those who knowingly follow a funeral try to hang a hundred yards or so behind the last car and coast. Or play road block for the dense.
I’m not from here – but it is a good custom. When the ship sails all debts are paid.
Stranger
April 9th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
I don’t stop for them on the freeway here in Houston. I’ve never seen anyone stop for them on the freeway.
I can’t remember running across one on surface streets, wasn’t aware the courtesy was to stop though.
April 9th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Apologies in advance, but it’s Pet Peeve time.
As someone who drives an ambulance regularly, the “just pull over and slow down” thing irritates the crap out of me, and makes my job significantly harder. Pull over and STOP. If you’re moving, the person driving the ambulance doesn’t know what you might do, and can’t predict if, when, or where you might turn in front of him. If you’re stopped, you become predictable, and you’ve given the driver pretty clear confirmation that you have seen him and won’t do something stupid right in front of him.
Depending on which state you’re in, it might also be required by law. Pull over and STOP until the ambulance has passed you.
April 9th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
I do it, except on the freeway. IMO it’s unreasonable and dangerous for anybody to expect to stop traffic on the freeway. I actually think there should be a law against forming the police-escorted convoys on the freeway. Too many people still try to pull over. Very dangerous. Convoys are fine on surface roads, but not on freeways. They should break up and reassemble when they exit the freeway.
And there’s a difference between an ambulance and a funeral. First, it’s an emergency. A dead guy is not. Plus, an ambulance is (usually) just one vehicle. I have seen funeral convoys last for a quarter of a mile or longer. Unless you’re a former head of state, I don’t think your funeral deserves blocking off that much of the road.
April 9th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
It has been a long time since a procession was even escorted in Tennessee, unless you’re a police official or fireman. It has been more than 30 years since I left Chattanooga for greener pastures and the last time I went to a funeral there we almost lost our lives to a loaded dump truck running across our path with a green light. Some of the smaller cities still, I think, escort the procession and require you to stop. I always stop and pull over if I can, safely. I always pull over and stop for an ambulance and if the deceased is a veteran (known by the flags on the hearse) I will get out of my vehicle and place my hand over my heart.
April 10th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
I don’t see many funeral processions around here. I would stop if I ever saw one.
As for ambulances, I always stop but it isn’t always possible to pull over.
April 12th, 2010 at 12:25 am
I’ve always stopped for them when I see them. Went to a funeral up in MD a few years back for my wife’s grandmother and not a single person stopped or even slowed down. Most people were trying to cut in and out of the precession, and that was while we were still in town with a police escort.
I don’t think that the escorts are something that is generally done in TN though. If it is done then it is something that the family has to request and pay the local pd for. Least that’s my understanding from the last funeral I went to back in Jackson.