It happens. Drivers have wrecks, call the authorities, and it takes time to clear things up. However, no motorist wants their already-awful situation to worsen with a lengthy delay. Unfortunately, a Georgia woman experienced the worst kind of delay when a silly squabble over jurisdiction and police reporting left her stranded on a highway for the length of a flight from London to Lagos. 

A confusing conversation about police jurisdiction and reporting on a Georgia highway stranded a woman for six hours

At around 9:30 p.m., a Georgia woman was part of a crash on Interstate 285. A semi-truck had hit her car, prompting her to follow the runaway trucker to get them to pull over. Police officers responded to the incident. In typical fashion, law enforcement began assessing the wreck to write a police report. However, something was wrong with the reporting. 

Interestingly enough, the location of the wreck and the final site created confusion among the officers. Unfortunately for the woman, she claimed that “none of the responding officers could figure out which jurisdiction was responsible for writing a police report.” Officers were debating who should write the report, considering the crash happened in a different jurisdiction from the site where both vehicles had pulled over. 

Tragically, the woman told interviewers that multiple agencies had dispatched officers. One cop responded by saying the incident wasn’t in his jurisdiction. The debate of jurisdiction and reporting paralyzed the police officers on the scene. 

Understandably, the frivolous conversation about police jurisdiction saddened the woman. “I am just so disappointed,” she said of the event. Worse yet, a dash cam video captured some of her frustration. “I don’t understand what’s happening. We’ve been here almost five hours.”

That’s not the worst part, either. Around five hours into the ordeal, a police officer produced a self-reporting form for the incident. The officer told her to fill it out and informed her that “Someone should have already given you that.” Peak accountability.

According to 95.5 WSB Atlanta, Chief Shawn Buchanan of the East Point Police Department was angered by the news. He reportedly told the media that police officers should never leave a driver stranded for that amount of time.