Last night I was southbound on I-55 when I picked up a tailgater. I was running about 59 mph and figured it was someone trying to get better fuel mileage by drafting me. I slowed down to 55, then down to 50 and the person stayed glued to my bumper. You couldn't have fit a playing card between us. After about 20 miles of this, I got tired of it and called the state police. There was a trooper about 4 miles down the road and they said he'd pull the car over and get them off me. Cool.
I go by the trooper and he falls in behind us. The car hasn't backed off an inch. The trooper hits his lights but the car refuses to pull over. Doesn't speed up, doesn't get out from behind me or back off, but won't pull over either. I'm starting to think I have a nutcase on me that's wanting a confrontation of some sort. Anyway, after about five miles, the trooper just shuts off his lights and turns off! I called them back and asked why they shut down. The dispatcher said that now Illinois State Police has a "no pursuit" policy due to the danger of high speed pursuits. I asked about the danger of an idiot glued to my bumper and the guy said he understood the danger, but there was nothing they could do about it if the driver wouldn't pull over. So now I'm really in a quandary.
Anyway, I call them back and suggest they get another trooper behind the car and when he's there, I'll go ahead and pull over. That way if the guy has a beef with me, at least we'll find out what it is with police backup in place.
So they agree to this idea. The cop pulls in behind the car and lights it up and I pull over. The car keeps on going, but finally pulls over about a mile down the road. I pull over about 1/8th of a mile ahead and wait to find out what the deal is.
The story the trooper got was that the female driver is partially deaf and didn't hear the siren (so how on earth did she miss the lights? It was dark out and they were blinding me!). She also said she'd just had a big fight with her husband and just wasn't paying attention.
How can you not be paying attention when you're running less than two feet behind a big truck for 35 miles?
How can the state police effectively enforce traffic laws if they're not allowed to chase down and apprehend offenders?
Just one more event in a bizarre day for me yesterday.