Funeral Procession

[The Actual Sized E]

So I'm driving home from Downtown Chicago this morning, and I stop at a red light about a mile from home to see a funeral procession start to cross in front of me. Aw shit, this is going to take a while. I'm sitting in the left lane and my light turns green. Cars start backing up behind me but of course I can't go any where until this seemingly never-ending chain of cars with pink slips in there windows gets through the intersection. My mind starts drifting off watching the cars pass when out of no where a car blazes past me in the right lane, slams into one of the funeral cars entering the intersection, and ricochets into another car waiting at the light opposite me. Whoa... that woke me up. So I called 911 to get the police and an ambulance out there. It seemed like no one was seriously hurt, but it easily could have been much worse. If the car in the procession were going just a little faster the driver would have been t-boned by a car going roughly 40 mph, bad news. Anyway, what I'm getting at is: Should we really be having funeral processions anymore in this day and age? I've seen this *almost* happen before, it just seems like an inherently dangerous situation, especially when taking place in a city. The driver who would be considered "at fault" in this situation had almost no chance to react. He was coming up to the intersection, the left lane was backed up behind me (as if I were making a left turn), and the right lane was clear with a green light. The moment he hits the intersection a car blows through the red light (legally) right in front of him and he literally had no time to react. It could have just as easily been me, except then it would be a lot worse cause I'm driving a fully loaded work van. So what do you think, is it just an overly dangerous relic that we hold onto for tradition's sake? Funreal processions come from a time when traffic didn't exist, and even if it did you were at worst in a slow horse drawn buggy. Today we should be able to find our own way from the funeral home to the graveyard, we have mapquest, it's not that hard. It just seems crazy to me that the 4 people you see legally and dangerously going through red lights are policemen, firemen, ambulance drivers, and people on their way to a cemetary. The first three are in a neccessary hurry, but your loved ones won't be any less dead if you get there 5-10 minutes quicker, you just might end up joining them .

[CIC flurry]

That's crazy. I saw an accident on the highway today too. Bumper to bumper traffic, but somehow, one SUV managed to sandwich another SUV with a semi and total it. I dunno how, going 5 miles an hour in that traffic. Anyway that's unrelated.

Back to fnueral processions. I was in one once, and they had a car with a light on top that would always block the intersection until all cars passed. So i think funeral processions can be much safer if there are a few cars to block intersections. But maybe you're right that they should just be avoided all together. I don't know the traditional reasons for it, but I'd rather do my grieving at the funeral.

[james_dean]

Wow. That sounds pretty dangerous. "Legally" running red lights without any kind of warning. What a scary loophole

[HighDemonslayer]

I hate car wrecks, and this sounds like good evidence for dis-continuing the procession practice.
Chi-town is a traffic nightmare already, and a caravan of 50 slow moving cars is un-acceptable.

I don't know how common these processions are, but they should have 2 motorcycle, or squadcar police to clearly stop traffic at every intersection.



What is the hurry anyway? the guest of honor is dead already.
if some of the funeral attendees get split up and get lost on the way....to fucking bad. At least they get there in one piece.

Also, I remember a funeral they had here in Phoenix for a police officer a couple years ago. They had a freaking procession of 100 or so police vehicles following the casket down I-10 to get to a cemetary in Tempe.


Theyparalysed the entire SE valley during rush hour for that crap.


-n