Driver's course dilemma

[tannerthehammer]

Ok so I was doing my military driver's course and we were driving MLVW's...It was my turn to drive and my MLVW had absolutely no lights working on it and we were in a convoy of about 6 trucks...

I was in the middle of the convoy, and I asked my instructor what would happen if we got pulled over by the police because the lights weren't working...He said that since the military is a federal agency police don't have jurisdiction over us....

I thought that was a load of bull....I didn't want to drive the vehicle....He said we would have no way to get it out of the city if we didn't get it back to the base because we had no recovery vehicle...So anyway, I drove the thing back to the base using the vehicles behind me to block so I could switch lanes somewhat safely....

The instructor said he has never seen a cop pull over a military vehicle unless it was a civi pattern (pickup truck painted green with CF plates) and not to worry....

I think the MP's would have pulled us over for sure but what about civi police?

 

[Fdtrucker]

Safety is Paramount
Yes civilian police officer can pull you over, federal agency or not. They can ticketed you also. You did not mention if you were driving during the day of night. While in Afghanistan we constantly did not drive with our service lights off in the daylights, just like the local populace. You have the right to refused to drive a unsafe vehicle that should be VORed due to the light not working, There is a National Recovery System across the Country, which means you could have waited along side the road for hours. On different tours overseas I have blocked vehicles attempting to pass me and others have blocked for myself becasuse the lights have gone out. Being a student on a Driver Wheeled Course you are trying to do your best , making sure that you don't become known as a student with an attitude. I would have told the Driver Instructor to drive himself and to forget the km I would have gotten on that drive.

 

[Wookilar]

Our trucker friend is absolutely right. Worked recovery for a long time and we have to keep up on all the regs. They also should have known about National Recovery, all areas either have support from Reg Force units or civilian contracts in place. I recovered more than a few reserve vehicles with my wrecker.
Once upon a time we basically had free range with regard to civvy laws on the road (FYI, the MLVW is technically illegal to operate because of its air brake system, there is no backup/safety system in it, but nobody will tell you that on your driver wheeled) but that went away a number of years ago. We have to have "due diligence" with respect to all federal/provincial laws.
We have an escape clause in that we are entitled to do whatever we have to do for "operational requirements" but that is reserved for directions from higher and generally doesn't hold water in peace time or on a training exercise. That higher would be the highest rank on the ground, so a MCpl would qualify. But he would have to justify their decisions to the CO if it went south.
That being said, I have never seen a civvy cop pull over a military vehicle, but I have "heard" about it. Buddy of a buddy over at 2 Svc Bn, etc etc.