In PA, you can kill someone after you're dead

What happened to me this morning was one of the most bogus things I have seen in a while.

I was driving down Braddock and approaching Forbes. There was a car in front me and a car to the side. There were also cars in the other direction. As I approach the light, it turns to protected green. So I start making my left turn after the guy in front of me. The guy to my side also begins to proceed.

The cars coming down Forbes don't stop.

Brakes and honking ensue.

The cars coming down Forbes STILL don't stop.

I eventually follow the guy in front of me by hitting the gas and getting out of these jerks way.

Turns out, it was a funeral procession of about 30 or so cars. And PA law allows them to drive through a red light. (Refer to 75 Pa. Cons. Stat. 3107) Oddly, it NOT state that they have right-of-way, it just states that if the lead car went through legally, the others may follow during a red light. They have to have their lights on and a little "funeral" flag. If you have not seen said flags, they are about 4 inches across, purple, and say "Funeral". Michelle has noted that given how many people around here have Steelers flags, they aren't very obvious. Less so on a rainy day. I usually don't make a habit of checking every window of a car to see if it has a purple flag. Of course, it doesn't specify where the flag has to be, and at least one car (the one that nearly ran me over) did not have one. Presumably they ran out give that this was a large funeral procession.

Let's get this straight now. The only other vehicles allowed to run a read light are ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars. These are highly visibly marked vehicles with lots of flashing lights and loud sirens. And they are driven by professionals with training. Even still, an ambulance driver slows down when approaching a red just in case, and that's even when he's racing to the hospital.

Yet the geniuses of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have decided that an UNTRAINED driver with an UNMARKED car and NO lights or sirens can run a red light at normal speed.

Does this seem stupid to anyone else? Yes, you lost a loved one. But that person is dead, and they are not getting any deader. There is no need to run a red light and nearly kill other people in the process. Dying should not allow your family members to commit vehicular manslaughter.