Everyone, unfortunately, has seen the flashing lights in the rearview mirror or the pale piece of paper wedged under the windshield wipers, whether firsthand or for someone else.
PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN Above: Rob Mason (l) and Tom Aszman, of the Edison Fire Department. dismantle a car roof using a cutter and a spreader during the lecture and demonstration about crash extraction hosted by the Edison Police Department’s Special Crash Investigation Team for participants of the Civilian Police Academy on Nov. 5. Below: Academy participants take a closer look at the dismantled car. What Edison residents learned during the police department’s latest Civilian Police Academy, held at the municipal building on Nov. 5, was that these aspects of the Traffic Bureau are only the beginning.
The Civilian Police Academy, which began this year on Oct. 15, is a series of classes held by the police department that are designed to build community relations by informing residents about the nature of police work in general and the Edison Police Department in particular. Each class will focus on a different part of the police department.
During this particular lecture, Sgt. Dominick Masi, with the traffic division, talked about how the thousands of trips from here to there in Edison are policed both in the field and behind the scenes.
He talked at length about the most visible aspect of the traffic bureau’s work, enforcement, and discussed what one can get a ticket for, both in terms of parking and moving violations, as well as the ways in which the police enforce them. And Masi made it very clear that there are many, many ways, especially with regard to speeding.
Radar plays a huge part in catching speeders in the township. Masi said current traffic patrol cars are equipped with both front and back radar, allowing officers to see how fast someone is going both in front and behind them.
There are also the better-known hand-held radar scanners. These have to be pointed at a specific vehicle, he said, and the state police tend to park at the side of the highways with these scanners, using either a Doppler radar unit or a laser unit.
Masi also took the time to tell people that radar jammers, devices that are designed to thwart traffic enforcement, just don’t work.
“Everything you read about radar jammers on the Internet — throw them away. They don’t work,” said Masi.
He also noted that radar detectors have also become much less effective, because it now takes only a second to check someone’s speed, and by the time the device goes off, it’s already too late. Also, when one does get pulled over, Masi said, the cop is more likely to ticket someone if he sees a radar detector, because it shows that the driver regularly speeds.
Later, Masi said the township is looking into a pilot project that installs cameras to catch people who run red lights, though he noted that an officer would need to actively see it happening on the monitor for a ticket to be issued.
The Traffic Bureau also has a large administrative function, said Masi, much of it to do with reviewing site plans that come before the township’s land use boards. For virtually any large application, whether it’s a housing complex or a retail center, the development’s impact on traffic must be assessed, which usually leads police to catch things that the applicant didn’t originally see. This can lead to requirements on the part of the developer for changes such as the addition of acceleration and deceleration lanes. In addition, the police enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act by making sure there are enough parking spaces for people with handicaps.
They also review road projects and the impact they may have, as well as the addition of traffic signs.
The traffic division also manages the township’s crossing guards, including hiring, training, scheduling and placement, and also arranges for replacements when a crossing guard is not able to make it on a particular day, because by law, crosswalks must be manned, Masi said.
After a short break, Officer Joseph Chonka talked about another aspect of the traffic bureau that may not be as visible: the Special Crash Investigation Team (SCIT), which examines car crashes and attempts to figure out how they happened.
SCIT members usually arrive long after the crash happened and rescue efforts have concluded, leaving them to piece together, sometimes literally, what happened.
“All we have is a pile of rubble … and tire marks … and we have to put it back together,” said Chonka.
To illustrate the work the SCIT does, the officer gave a presentation on a case they worked on involving a fatal car crash on Route 514 east. It was a Sunday morning, he said, with a single vehicle going at least 120 miles per hour. The driver lost control as he came around the bend, and he hit the curb before also hitting trees, a utilitypole and then the guardrail, which the car then went over. Chonka said the car went airborne and flew into the woods, where it split into three pieces. The driver was ejected from the car during this process.
“He didn’t survive, did he?” asked one man from the audience.
“No,” said Chonka quickly.
No one witnessed the crash — an ambulance happened to see the wreck on the way back from another run — which meant that the police needed to reconstruct what happened. Chonka said that speed can be determined because many times in a crash, the speedometer will get pinned into the position it was in before impact. Investigators can tell whether the car’s lights were on or if seat belts were worn. By using equations, they can look at the angle of skid marks and the location of impacts to figure out how the car moved during the crash.
“It’s almost like a mystery, putting things together,” said Chonka.
He also reminded people that seat belts are only built to withstand one serious crash and that they should be replaced afterward.
Between the crash and the investigation, though, there sometimes must be a rescue. This is where the Edison Fire Department comes in. Battalion Chief Robert Sofield took the class outside, where firefighters waited with what are typically called the Jaws of Life (though he noted that that’s a brand name, and that they are working with a cutter and a spreader) alongside a donated car.
Outside the police station, a motor hummed and the air smelled like gasoline for a few moments. Sofield said the equipment works on a hydraulic pump system.
As the firefighters worked, Sofield explained what they were doing. First they needed to remove the glass, though he noted that in most cases the glass is already gone because of the impact of the crash. But removing the glass was a safety precaution, he said, because if it’s not removed, the glass will explode when they work on the car.
After that, using tools that can exert up to 25,000 pounds of force, the firemen begin making cuts in the car to give the spreader room to eventually begin pulling the door open and then off its hinges. The car crunches when they do this. They also cut the valve struts to the tires to keep the car from rolling during their work.
Over time, the firefighters rip the car apart as if they were shelling a lobster.
“This goes through it like butter,” said Sofield.
“This is why, if you lock your keys in the car, you call the police, not the fire department,” joked Chonka.
Sofield said that on average, it takes between 12 and 15 minutes to get crash victims out of a car, though he has also seen it take 45 minutes. He also noted that under normal circumstances, firefighters have to be more careful than they were in the demonstration, since there usually is a person in the vehicle.
Chonka later said the SCIT would come in after all that and begin making markers on the ground and noting evidence such as skid marks for their future investigations.
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