Department of Public Safety v. Davis

Barnes, Chief Judge.

While driving his police car, State Trooper Phillips rear-ended a stopped pickup truck driven by Pamela Davis, a rural mail carrier. Phillips had been “running radar” to catch speeders, using Davis’s truck as a cover to check oncoming traffic, a technique known as “blocking.” When he hit Davis, she had stopped her truck, which had a strobe light flashing on top of it, and she was waiting for traffic to clear before making a left-hand turn. Despite the flashing strobe light, the trooper did not notice when Davis began slowing and by the time he realized she had stopped, he…