I have long been a known opponent to many of the operations of the carterville police department. When I was in high school they were notorious for pulling people over for the most insignificant things. I knew someone who received a ticket for traveling 33 in a 30. Most all of my friends have received tickets at one time or another in the ‘trap’ that is technically inside city limits, but is well outside of the ‘town’. So far I have been lucky enough to escape without any tickets…just a number of incidents where a cop will trail me for several miles outside of town and eventually pull me over for no logical reason, or just turn around and head back to town. At one point it was bad enough that it attracted the attention of local news media.

Anyways… a couple weeks ago I witnessed an ‘incident’ involving the carterville cops that was for once more a source of entertainment to me than irritation. While going out to my garage I noticed a bunch of flashy lights over by the front corner of my yard near the railroad bridge. I don’t really know how to explain what I found when I went over to investigate so I will just show you:

Hmm…what are all those people doing down there?

Is that a carterville cop car???

Yep.

How did this happen???

I still don’t really know exactly what happened, but according to the highway patrol, an officer from nearby carterville was involved in a high speed pursuit with a guy on a motorcycle. Somehow he ended up facing backwards about 40 feet off the road…my guess is he struck the railroad bridge while passing under it and lost control. There were no injuries so I had no remorse in taking lots of photos. There was no word on the whereabouts of the motorcyclist.