Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 591, Handling a Traffic Stop.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 591.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
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This episode is called Handling or Taking Care of a Traffic Stop, when the police stop you in your car because you've done something wrong.
Let's get started.
May I see your driver's license, proof of insurance, and car registration, please?
Let me get them out of my glove compartment.
Here they are.
What did I do wrong, officer?
Didn't you see that stop sign back there?
Stop sign?
What stop sign?
I didn't see any stop sign.
Sit tight and I'll be right back.
I guess he was running my driver's license and license plate numbers to make sure there are no outstanding warrants for me or for my car.
He came back after a few minutes.
You ran a stop sign back there, and I'm going to have to give you a citation.
Is that really necessary, officer?
I'm really sorry I ran the stop sign, and I'll be more careful next time.
I suppose I could let you off with a warning just this once.
Oh, thank you so much.
Drive more carefully in the future.
I will.
I definitely will.
Phew!
That was close.
Good thing I tossed the incriminating evidence out the window before I pulled off the road.
Our story begins with Lindsay saying I was having a great day until I saw the police car behind me with its loud siren and lights flashing.
A siren S-I-R-E-N.
Is that part of the police car or ambulance or fire truck that makes a very loud noise so that other drivers will move their cars out of the way so they can go faster.
A siren would typically go in the U.S. something like, That's terrible, I know.
I'll give you a better siren.
I thought they were going to stop me.
Back to our story.
Poor Lindsay heard the loud siren, and then she saw the lights flashing on the police car.
To flash here means for a light to go on and off, on and off, on and off.
Flash has many meanings however, in English, and those can be found in that good old learning guide.
So, Lindsay saw the police car, and obviously the police car wanted her to stop.
She pulled off the road and waited for the officer to approach her car.
This is in fact what you are supposed to do if you are driving in the U.S.
And let's say you're going too fast or you didn't stop at the stop sign and there is a police officer who pulls you over, meaning who makes you take your car and park it on the side of the road.
You should wait in your car.
Don't get out of your car to go talk to the police officer.
They don't like that.
Lindsay pulled off the road.
She drove her car to the side and stopped.
The officer came up to her window and said, as they probably will typically, May I see your driver's license, proof of insurance and car registration please?
These are three things that everyone is required to have in most states.
A driver's license.
You have to have permission to drive in the U.S. or an international license.
Proof of insurance.
You have to prove that the automobile has car insurance.
Now, if you rent an automobile, typically that proof will be found in the small box in the front right of the car called the glove compartment.
Your car registration is information that verifies that your car was officially registered and you paid the tax for it with the state government where you are.
So driver's license, proof of insurance, which is usually a little card from the insurance company with your name and the insurance policy, the agreement you have with the insurance company, that number and your car registration, which is also a small little card.
Lindsay says, let me get them out of my glove compartment.
We just explained what that was.
Why is it called the glove compartment?
Well, presumably that's where people used to put their gloves when they used gloves to drive.
But I don't think anyone uses them for gloves anymore, unless you live in a very cold part of the country, which happily I don't.
So Lindsay says, here they are.
This is an expression we would use if you are going to give a set of something to another person.
Here they are.
If it's just one thing, you would say, here it is.
But she has three things.
So she says, here they are.
Then she asks, what did I do wrong, officer?
The officer said, didn't you see that stop sign back there?
A stop sign in the U.S. is a red eight-sided or octagonal sign that says stop.
And it means you have to stop your car completely before going forward.
Well, unfortunately, Lindsay didn't see the stop sign.
She says, stop sign?
What stop sign?
I didn't see any stop sign.
The officer says, sit tight and I'll be right back.
If someone tells you to sit tight T-I-G-H-T They mean wait usually sitting down somewhere for a period of time and don't go anywhere.
Sit tight means to wait and not leave.
Well, the officer is telling Lindsay to sit tight, to stay in her car and not leave.
Again, this is very typical.
What the police officer will do now is explained by Lindsay.
She says, To run here means to check.
He's probably going to his computer in his car or perhaps some other means of communicating with the headquarters, the main office of the police, so he can check to see that the driver's license is valid.
It's a good driver's license.
He's also checking the license plate numbers.
Those are the large letters and numbers on a rectangular piece of metal, either in the front of the car, in the back of the car or both in the front and the back.
They are used to identify the car in the state's registration system.
So they want to make sure the car is not stolen, so they make sure that it hasn't been reported stolen by running the license plate numbers.
She says that the police want to make sure there are no outstanding warrants.
A warrant is usually a document that allows the police to arrest someone, but it hasn't yet been used, probably because the person cannot be found.
Outstanding here means something that hasn't been done yet.
In this case...
An outstanding warrant would be something that the police have not yet used because they couldn't find the person.
The police catch lots of people who are doing something wrong with their car, who have outstanding warrants, meaning they are criminals.
They've done something wrong somewhere else.
The officer comes back and says you ran a stop sign back there and I'm going to have to give you a citation.
To run a stop sign or a stop light means not to stop your car when you are legally required to do so.
So if the light is red and you just keep driving through the intersection, through the place where the two streets cross, you could get a citation.
Another word for a citation is a ticket.
Citation is the more legal name.
It's a piece of paper from the police saying that you have broken the law and you have to pay a certain amount of money what we would call a fine or you have to go to the judge, to the court.
Lindsay says, is that really necessary, officer?
The police can not give you a ticket.
I have never heard it happening, but it's possible.
At least it never happens here in Los Angeles.
The officer says To let someone off is a phrasal verb meaning to forgive someone, to not give someone the punishment they deserve.
A warning is a written or a spoken statement that says that what you did was wrong and you should not do it again.
That's really all a warning is.
The officer says that he could let her off with a warning, meaning he could not give her a ticket and just tell her to be more careful next time.
He says he'll do it just this once, meaning this time only.
This is an exception to the rule.
We don't normally do this unless the woman is very attractive, right?
And the police officer is typically a man.
I'm not saying that happens frequently.
The officer says, drive more carefully in the future.
Lindsay says, I will.
I definitely will.
She says, is a way of saying, I'm relieved.
I'm happy.
Something bad was going to happen to me, but it didn't.
She says that was close, meaning I almost got a ticket.
Good thing I tossed the incriminating evidence out the window before I pulled off the road.
To toss, T-O-S-S, means to throw something, especially to throw something away, to get rid of it.
Evidence is proof of something.
Incriminating evidence is proof that you were doing something illegal.
What Lindsay is saying is that she had something illegal in her car and Maybe it was a beer bottle that was open, which is illegal in most states if you are driving.
Or maybe she had something else that she threw out the window and the police officer didn't see it and so she didn't get in trouble for that probably more serious crime.
I've been pulled over for speeding once.
It was about three or four years ago and what happened was I went to a restaurant and I remembered that I had left the stove in the kitchen on.
The fire was burning on the top of the stove.
So I drove very fast back home from the restaurant where I was and of course I was driving too fast and the police officer saw me and pulled me over.
I of course explained the reason, but he didn't care.
He still gave me the ticket, the fine, which was something around $250, something like that.
It was a lot of money.
Sometimes it doesn't matter if you have a good reason for driving fast.
You're still going to get a citation.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I was having a great day until I saw the police car behind me with its loud siren and lights flashing.
I pulled off the road and waiting for the officer to approach my car.
May I see your driver's license, proof of insurance, and car registration, please?
Let me get them out of my glove compartment.
Here they are.
What did I do wrong, officer?
Didn't you see that stop sign back there?
Stop sign?
What stop sign?
I didn't see any stop sign.
Sit tight and I'll be right back.
I guess he was running my driver's license and license plate numbers to make sure there are no outstanding warrants for me or for my car.
He came back after a few minutes.
Is that really necessary, officer?
I'm really sorry I ran the stop sign, and I'll be more careful next time.
Just this once.
Oh, thank you so much.
Drive more carefully in the future.
I will.
I definitely will.
Phew, that was close.
Good thing I tossed the incriminating evidence out the window before I pulled off the road.
The scriptwriter for this episode would never run a stop sign.
That's because it's Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
