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Show Page HERALD HE Provo. Utah. Monday. March 29 1982 RraS-- Patrolman Longford stops 70 mph Volkswagen on '5 Breakfast is important - because he often misses lunch. Just Another Day... After one loop of the freeway from Orem to the Point he parks in the borrow pit on the crest of a hill on one side of an overpass. a location where he will use radar He calls it a "fishing Hole" on speeders. He says the guardrail in front helps reduce the effectivness of instruments some motorist use. In the pit on the side of the hill it is hard for motorists to see him until they are right on him. anti-rad- 7:36 a.m. He's got his first speeder, a red Vokswagen that the radar indicated is going 70 mph. He writes the motorist a ticket and then helpfully drives a 55 mph pace with the Volkswagen for a few miles driving behind because the motorist thinks his speedometer is off. a location Langford now moves to a stop watch position that has been set up well off the highway where freeway speeders are clocked over a known distance. He says that this method foils radar detecters and truckers who broadcast the location of highway patrolmen to other g truckers. He starts his stopwatch when a vehicle on and it reaches the when the the it left, passes stops light pole light pole on the right. Using a table of times and speeds. He determines the vehicle is doing 75 mph and takes off after it. He writes another ticket, and says most of the money goes to Utah county. He works both the radar and the stopwatch locations most of the moring and writes several tickets. While waiting in his "fishing holes," he talks about his job: "Except for the hours, it's a good job," he says. "About 90 percent of the people I deal with are good people who give me respect, but there is that 10 percent. "I've been spit on, kicked, and hit, mostly by drunks," he says. It helps to have a sense of humor says Langford, and he t 'lis about the time when an intoxicated driver he was transporting spilled liquor all over his Smokey Bear hat and then stepped all over it. There was another time he needed a sense of humor: "I was writing a ticket next to a car I had pulled over, and a rolled by very close. My hat sailed over the car big and down an embankment into the middle of a puddle. I must have made a lot of people's day fishing for mv hat with a stick." All morning he had written several speeding tickets and had tagged several abandoned vehicles and considered the morning "just another day." u.59 gm He was three blocks from home and ready to stop for lunch when the dispatcher radioed, a report of a rollover in Provo Ca nyon. He was the closest highway patrolman and turned on his flashing lights as he sped to the scene. 12:07 p.m. He was the first emergency vehicle on the scene. Someone ran up to him and said gasoline was spilling from the overturned truck. The crash was on a comer just east of the squaw peak trail. The woman who had been driving the truck loaded with roof on her head and hand, and Langford provided first aid until paramedics from the Provo Fire Department arrived and took over. trusses had a small cut The load had shifted on the truck and led to the crash. A fire engine hosed off the gasoline soaked road and traffic was stopped until 12:22 p.m. Langford took statements about the accident and directed snarled traffic around the scene. He left the accident scene at 1:56 p.m. and headed for lunch at home. one-vehic-le 2:09 p.m. Langford arrived home for lunch. Since he got off work at p.m. the day was over. For him Thursday was just another day. 3 C tm J. MVMOiM 18.ACC0 CO. Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health. 100's: 14 mg. "tar". 1.0 mg. nicotine, KING; IS mj."ar",tl mg. nicotine, ev. per cigarette, FTC Report DEC. '81 |