© 2013, Iron Butt Association, Chicago, Illinois Please respect our intellectual property rights. Do not distribute this
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If you have less than a half tank of gas, why not stop, fill-up and put on your suit all in one, quick, safe
stop? Whether you take the fill-up advice or not, we strongly recommend you avoid putting your rain suit
on along side the road. The dangers are too numerous to outline, but think about this when planning to
dodge the rain under an overpass; do you really want to be standing just three feet (or about an arms
length) from traffic zooming by at 60 mph and up? And if it is raining, do you want to be standing that
close to drivers half-blinded by the rain themselves? And keep in mind that some of those drivers will be
looking for a covered place of their own to wait out a hard rain - just like the place you are putting on your
rainsuit.
While hard statistics on this subject are hard to come by, roadside shoulder accidents do happen. For
example, we witnessed this tragic accident in May of 1995; on a clear nights while stopping a vehicle for
a traffic violation an Illinois state Trooper had his blue police lights in full gear (anyone that has ever
gotten stopped can attest to the intensity of these lights). Although both vehicles were on the shoulder of
the Interstate, a tired driver managed came off the road and rammed into the rear of the Illinois state
highway patrol car causing it to explode and kill the trooper inside.
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