This post originally appeared here, at hooniverse.com.

Let’s say you are driving along a freeway when you come upon another vehicle that has slowed considerably and you punt the other vehicle hard enough that the driver has to be cut out with the Jaws of Life. What would happen next? YOU WOULD GET A TICKET AND PAY FOR THE DAMAGE YOU CAUSED!

Now, let’s say the scenario above happened, but the person doing the rear-ending is a police officer. What would happen next? An investigation. LOL WUT? Hit the jump for the news report on this incident.

SALT LAKE CITY — An investigation is under way after a Unified Police Department car slammed into the back of another vehicle on I-215. It happened late Wednesday night on the east I-215 beltway near 3900 South. A state trooper said both vehicles were in the right-hand lane when they crashed.

The officer was not injured, but the woman driving the other vehicle had to be cut out of her car. She was taken to a hospital with a head injury but is expected to be fine.

Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Bryan Gardner said investigators don’t know if the officer was trying to pull the woman over, if his emergency lights were on, or if either driver was speeding.

Investigators will hand over any evidence to the county attorney’s office. Prosecutors will decide whether charges are warranted.

Ok, let’s break this down. A police vehicle rear-ended another car and an investigation is underway. What is the first thing you learn in driver’s education? If you rear-end someone, you are at fault.  How much investigating needs to be done?

“…investigators don’t know if the officer was trying to pull the woman over, if his emergency lights were on, or if either driver was speeding.” 

Where to start?  If he was trying to pull her over, I’d call that excessive force. 

Did anyone check to see what position the emergency lights switch was in when they arrived on the scene? 

Finally, I’m no expert in physics, but I am going out on a limb here and saying that the woman was not speeding.  For the sake of argument, let’s say she was speeding, say at 75 MPH.  In order to inflict that much damage from behind, the police vehicle would have to have been going 120+ MPH.  Not likely.

This is a clear case of a cop, who was probably looking at his dashboard computer or his phone, not paying attention and rear-ending another driver.  Cite the officer, discipline him, and get on with it.  All too often, police officers get away with traffic infractions merely because they are police officers.

[Source:  http://www.ksl.com/?sid=22602293&nid=148]