<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0zsi8D_1Gtny1DQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0zsi8D_1Gtny1DQ00" width="1280" height="862" ><figcaption>Columnist John Boyle witnessed a serious collision Oct. 7 between an Asheville Police Department and a Subaru SUV on Tunnel Road. No one was seriously injured, but the police car was totaled. From 2022 through 2025, APD averaged 44 collisions per year, including both minor and serious wrecks. // Watchdog photo by John Boyle</figcaption></figure>At some point in our lives, we’re all terrible drivers.A moment of inattention, a touch of road rage, a rush to get to an appointment that makes us drive like jerks.But generally speaking, we behave ourselves around cop cars. Unless we just don’t see them, of course.I bring this up because of a personal experience that was pretty shocking to me — witnessing a bad collision between a citizen who pulled out right in front of a marked Asheville Police Department SUV on Oct. 7. The wreck occurred on Tunnel Road when a man in a Subaru turned left in front of the patrol vehicle from Lynnstone Court onto Tunnel Road.In this instance, I was not a great witness, as I was probably 75 yards away and the first thing I noticed was two vehicles smashing into each other — glass and plastic flying in the air and both vehicles getting spun around.I’ve seen a few wrecks in my 46 years of driving, but it’s still shocking to see one occur right in front of you. Fortunately, neither the officer nor the driver were seriously injured.Along with two other drivers, I was first on the scene and checked on the Subaru driver, as he was stuck inside the smashed up vehicle, having taken a blow to the driver’s side. He was physically shaking, but first responders were able to get him out of the car and off to the hospital.“The driver of a Subaru was transported to Mission Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries,” APD spokesperson Rick Rice told me. “The APD officer was treated for minor injuries on the scene. The APD vehicle was a total loss.”I stayed at the scene and gave my contact information to officers, telling them what I described above, which was not terribly helpful, I know. As a professional observer, I really need to work on my observational skills when it comes to collisions.But we all sort of zone out from time to time on the road. I guess I did a bit. So did the fella in the Subaru, I suppose.It got me wondering just how often these kinds of collisions happen, considering cops log a lot of miles in our fair city. So I asked APD for information on the number of collisions annually, and how often citizens were at fault versus officers.The results are displayed in the following table:<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2wKwZJ_1Gtny1DQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2wKwZJ_1Gtny1DQ00" width="1024" height="724" ><figcaption>This table shows the number of collisions involving Asheville Police Department vehicles over the past five years, including major and minor crashes. // Watchdog graphic created by Katie Linsky Shaw</figcaption></figure>Mercifully, the number of injuries is pretty low — a total of only four officers and 12 residents in 203 collisions.Like me, you probably noticed that “officer at fault” numbers spiked in 2024 and 2025. Rice said multiple factors contributed to this, including reduced staffing during and after the COVID-19 pandemic years and the George Floyd protests in 2020. As police staffing numbers improved, more officers were on duty and were more proactive in responding to calls.“Additionally, in this context, ‘collision’ applies to any contact resulting in any degree of damage — ranging from minor tire or rim scrapes against a curb to incidents as minimal as slight paint transfer on a side mirror,” Rice said. “Consequently, an incident classified as a collision does not necessarily reflect a major accident.”APD officers, as mandated by the state, get 48 hours of driver training as part of Basic Law Enforcement Training. APD adds another four days of training, bringing the total to around 80 hours.All of this is serious business, of course, as Asheville and Buncombe County have a lot of vehicle crashes and deaths. APD provided statistics showing 85 traffic-collision fatalities in the city in the past five years. That does not include the six pedestrians killed by vehicles so far this year.Riding with an officer, watching cars fly pastClearly, officers are responsible for a fair number of the wrecks, although it’s important to remember that pretty much any scrape is included in those numbers. Also, when they’re responding to calls, they often have to drive fast and aggressively.I wanted to see firsthand just how oblivious we citizen drivers can be, so I took the APD up on an offer to do a ride-along with Sgt. Hunter Welborn, who has 13 years of experience and supervises the APD’s Traffic Safety Unit. So we went out on Oct. 20, a clear fall day, for a few hours.Welborn drove a Ford Explorer with “Police” clearly marked in large letters on both sides but no light bar on the roof. Still, it’s pretty obviously a cop car.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2OcW8t_1Gtny1DQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2OcW8t_1Gtny1DQ00" width="1024" height="688" ><figcaption>Sgt. Hunter Welborn shoots LiDAR, a speed detection machine, on Interstate 240 east of Asheville on Oct. 20. Despite being in a highly visible position, most motorists were speeding when they passed his vehicle. // Watchdog photo by John Boyle</figcaption></figure>We were cruising on Interstate 240 at 60 mph and people just kept passing us. Welborn said it doesn’t surprise him at all.I have a firm rule that it’s just a little too brazen to pass a clearly marked cop car. I mean, you’re just begging to get pulled.If a driver is “super-egregious” and really is cooking over the speed limit, Welborn said he lets them get up next to him to see if they finally notice the “Police” sign on the door. They usually do and immediately hit the brakes.“And they refuse to pass me,” he said. “I could slow down to 15 miles an hour under the speed limit, and they’re like, ‘Nope, not passing.’” That’d be me.North Carolina is an “absolute speed state,” Welborn told me, which means you can get a ticket for going over the speed limit by any amount. But the state also has a “general speed law,” which accounts for road conditions, particularly in snow or heavy rain, meaning you can get a ticket for driving too fast for the conditions. Typically, cops are not going to pull you for one or two miles per hour over the limit. They don’t have the time or manpower for that.When drivers don’t see cops it usually comes down to a combination of factors including inattention, distractions such as cellphones, speeding and heavy traffic on the roads, Welborn said.One irony of all the collisions today is that cars are safer than ever, with forward collision assist warnings, lane departure warnings, backup cameras and more.“All of that is getting better, but I also think that it hurts the driving public because they become reliant on it,” Welborn said.We zipped over to Beaverdam Road and its intersection with Kimberly Avenue, which I wrote about a few weeks ago, as the Traffic Safety Unit conducted an enforcement operation there and a lot of ticketed folks were quite unhappy. Welborn parked right on the side of Beaverdam Road at the intersection. And he apparently covered the SUV in an invisibility cloak.Plenty of drivers seemed to have trouble coming to a full stop, and most seemed unaware of a marked cop car sitting to the side watching. Cars stopped a couple of times, forcing the cars behind to also stop. But when the following cars came to the intersection they rolled through. For the record, that forced stop by the car in front of you doesn’t count as your stop.The “rock backwards” when your vehicle fully stops is what they’re looking for, by the way.“If I wanted to get everybody that didn’t do that, I’d have to have the entire department sitting out here waiting,” Welborn said, adding that officers usually settle for a solid effort at stopping. A Ford pickup truck, a work truck probably associated with construction in the area, flagrantly rolled through the intersection, but Welborn let it go. “People aren’t even paying attention,” Welborn said.A few vehicles did stop all the way, and some spotted us and then stopped with theatrical thoroughness. “Just come to a complete stop,” Welborn said. “You’ll still be able to go first, and you got nowhere to go. You made it 15 feet down the road to a construction site.”Pulling over oblivious speedersNext we ventured out to Interstate 240 east of downtown, where the roadway opens up to three lanes and motorists tend to really punch it. It’s a frequent violation zone, Welborn said, and a frequent enforcement spot, as almost nobody abides by the 55-mph speed limit.“The second I put my car in park, I’m gonna have to stop somebody because they’re running 70-75, miles an hour,” Welborn said.We soon put that to the test, and Welborn was right on the money.We were sitting in what felt like an obvious spot — parked sideways at the end of a bridge on the left side of the interstate, just past the Chunns Cove exit. The “Police” emblem was hard to miss.Unless you’re just not looking, which most drivers apparently weren’t. Most of them cruised by about 10 mph over the 55 mph speed limit.A silver Subaru blew by at 72 in the 55, which was a little too hot for Welborn. He flipped on the blue grill lights and stomped the gas to pull the car over. It was a nice, older couple with a penchant for speed.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2WDvqo_1Gtny1DQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2WDvqo_1Gtny1DQ00" width="866" height="1024" ><figcaption>Sgt. Hunter Welborn caught this Subaru doing 72 in a 55 on Interstate 240 east of downtown on Oct. 20. The driver said he was trying to pass a semi and didn’t see Welborn’s police vehicle. // Watchdog photo by John Boyle</figcaption></figure>I introduced myself, first noting I’m a reporter, not a cop. I’ve got to believe they were thinking, “Great, first I get pulled and now I’m going to be on TV.’” I assured them I worked for the Asheville Watchdog and didn’t plan to use their names unless they wanted me to.They didn’t.The driver said he was partly blocked by a semi and didn’t see the cop car. “I blame, of course, my stupidity,” he said. “But then the semi truck, which was on the right, was blocking my view, and I panicked. Second ticket in my life.”Welborn wrote the ticket as a 64 in a 55 to take some of the sting out of it, as insurance companies will really hop on your rates for way over the limit.Welborn said officers don’t write tickets to get folks in trouble, financially or legally. They want to change how people drive.“At the end of the day, it’s not about the ticket,” Welborn said. “It’s about the desired effect, and I want you to change your behavior on the forefront.”Years of studies have proven that your behavior behind the wheel leads to crashes.“And the higher in speed that you go, it’s proven that the more deadly and the more severe that crash is going to be,” Welborn said, noting that probably more than 95 percent of the speeding citations he writes are for a lower speed than the driver was actually doing.We drove back to the same spot, and Welborn parked in an even more obvious position. Some cars did slow down when they saw us, but plenty kept on boogeying past.A woman in a Mazda CX-50 powered by at 74 mph. Welborn hopped on it. He uses LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which employs pulsing laser beams to pinpoint speed, zeroing on a three-foot section of car at 1,000 feet. It’s pretty rock solid in court, Welborn said.The driver said she was just preoccupied with her thoughts and felt she was just staying with traffic. She didn’t see the patrol car at all. “She was within 300 feet of us when she was still going 74,” Welborn said. “298 feet.”He checked her driving history, which isn’t bad, and wrote her a ticket for lower speed than the LiDAR shot.In 40 minutes, he spotted six cars doing at least 15 miles an hour over the speed limit from a very obvious vantage point.A father who will be very angry with his sonWe headed back over to West Asheville via the Bowen Bridge. A Toyota 4Runner drifted over three lanes of traffic on I-240 to get on Interstate 26 westbound, just a few feet in front of us. I had a meeting to get to, so Welborn didn’t flick the lights.We crossed the Bowen Bridge, heading westbound on Patton Avenue by Regent Park and Sam’s Club. Welborn mentioned a problem spot at the first traffic light. Drivers used to be able to do a U-turn there, but that’s now illegal. Two large signs warn drivers of this change, one at eye level and one by the light. Welborn said officers have responded to about 30 wrecks there within just a few weeks.Sure enough, a pickup truck ignored the signs and ripped a U-turn, and then floored it toward downtown. A second truck followed suit and Welborn flicked on the blue lights.“You got time for one more?” he asked me. I couldn’t deny him twice.As is so often the case, Welborn went after the second guy, mainly because the first pickup took off like Baby Driver. He pulled over a Dodge Ram after reaching the other side of the Bowen Bridge. Welborn said the first truck that took off probably saw his flashing lights, and the one he pulled over definitely did. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=13DjXL_1Gtny1DQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=13DjXL_1Gtny1DQ00" width="1024" height="682" ><figcaption>Sgt. Hunter Welborn issued a citation to the driver of this Ram pickup truck on Oct. 20 for making an illegal U-turn on Patton Avenue. Two large “No U-Turn” signs are at the intersection but the driver said he didn’t see them, or notice that the turn lane has been removed. // Watchdog photo by John Boyle</figcaption></figure>The second driver told Welborn he had driven in Asheville forever and had always been able to do a U-turn there. He said he didn’t notice that the pattern had changed, which Welborn noted was hard to imagine, what with the two signs and all.Welborn had to ask about the first truck.“It was his son that was in front of him,” Welborn said.I suspect father and son had a lively conversation later on.“Again, this falls back in line with that inattention — ‘I’ve always done it this way,’” Welborn said of the violation.The bottom line is that we all need to slow down, pay attention, put the cellphones down and realize that speeding or driving foolishly is just going to hurt us — and maybe someone else — in the long run.And if you get pulled over, you’re going to be even later getting where you want to be.Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments on this story, which has been republished on our Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube pages. Please submit your comments there.Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.</div></body>

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At some point in our lives, we’re all terrible drivers. A moment of inattention, a touch of road rage, a rush to get to an appointment that makes us drive like jerks. But generally speaking, we behave ourselves around cop cars. Unless we just don’t see them, of course.

Opinion: Oblivious drivers include those running into cops

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At some point in our lives, we’re all terrible drivers. A moment of inattention, a touch of road rage, a rush to get to an appointment that makes us drive 

Opinion: Oblivious drivers include those running into cops

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