Funeral Process Changes

Escort Safety Still Questioned

— A hearse and cars with mourners left Sisco Funeral Chapel last week, but the trip to the burial site didn’t look much like a funeral procession, said Charles Farmer.

Farmer, the owner of Sisco, said the procedure to reach the cemetery is much different now that Springdale police no longer escort processions.

“We told everyone to obey the traffic laws,” Farmer said. “After we started, everyone was scattered out. Some people were late to the cemetery. It wasn’t a procession at all.”

Police stopped escorting funeral processions Jan. 15. Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley said safety, liability and manpower were the reasons the service was halted.

The danger comes when processions continue through intersections against a red traffic signal or a stop sign, O’Kelley said. To be safe, an officer had to remain at each intersection until the last vehicle in the procession went through, she said. Many times, one or two officers escorted processions.

At A Glance

AAA Report

A growing number of people are disregarding funeral processions. At least two people were killed and 23 injured nationwide in 2012 in funeral procession accidents. Of the six people killed in funeral processions in 2010, five were police officers.

Source: AAA

“We don’t have the manpower to escort safely,” O’Kelley said. “We should not have provided the escorts as long as we did.”

A study of the Springdale Police Department by the Matrix Consulting Group completed in August recommended the department stop escorting funerals.

Most police agencies no longer perform escorts because of the liability of escorting a motorcade through intersections where the lights are sometimes red, the study stated.

Private companies are providing escorts in several Arkansas cities. Leonard Hudson’s company, A&A Transport, has provided an escort for funerals in Russellville for more than 12 years, he said. Russellville police haven’t escorted processions for decades, he said.

“I fully expect someone to start a private company here,” O’Kelley said. “Once that happens, we’ll look at how they are escorting. There is no company now so there is no need to work out any procedures.”

In Denver, a limousine service provides funeral escorts. Maxxguard, a private security company, provides funeral escorts around Jackson, Tenn.

Hudson said he works with funeral homes to set up routes avoiding Russellville’s heaviest traffic areas. He pulls his escort vehicle — equipped with a flag, funeral escort signs and lights — slowly into an intersection to stop traffic.

“There is no law in Arkansas that gives the right of way to funeral processions,” Hudson said. “The drivers will usually stop though. Once the first ones stop, other will too.”

While that procedure works most of the time, it is not safe, O’Kelley said.

“You are relying on the courtesy of other drivers,” O’Kelley said. “If someone didn’t stop and hit a car in the procession, we’d have to give a ticket to the vehicle that didn’t obey a traffic control device.”

Paul Payne, pastor of Westside Free Will Baptist Church, said at the most recent City Council meeting he’d never seen an accident during the many times he officiated funerals.

Accidents, including fatalities, have occurred during funeral escorts, according to newspaper and TV accounts across the country.

Roy Sims, a police officer for Northern Kentucky University, died after an accident while he was escorting a procession in January 2011. Trevor Phillips, a Tuscaloosa, Ala., officer died in May 2011 after being hit during a funeral procession. Andrew Garton, a Hawthorne, Calif., officer died after being hit during a May 2011 procession in Torrance, Calif.

Garton’s widow and two sons filed a lawsuit against the California cities of Manhattan Beach and El Segundo, saying the procession wasn’t adequately planned and participants in the procession were not well trained.

A retired police officer, Clyde Baker, was critically injured during a July 2011 procession in Jacksonville, Fla. A Stamford, Conn., officer was injured in December during the funeral procession for one of the first-graders killed during the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. His name wasn’t released by Stamford Police.

Arkansas police departments could have liability problems by providing funeral escorts, said Mark Hayes, general counsel for the Arkansas Municipal League.

The problem could come when officers leave an intersection before all procession vehicles are through, Hayes said. Those in the procession could believe they have the right to proceed through the intersection because a police officer is leading it.

Only when an officer is present and waves vehicles through can the driver disregard a stop sign or traffic signal.

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