Trooper Stephen Hammons, Public Information Officer for State Police Troop I visited 'Mornings With Ken and Bernie' today and discussed yielding to emergency vehicles and obscured license plates.

Our first item for discussion this morning involved a truck that was recently seen with a New Orleans Saints license plate in the place reserved for a state license plate and the temporary license issued by a dealer displayed in the rear window.  That window was tinted so dark it was impossible to read.  We asked Hammons if this were legal and he replied,

It is illegal.  It is improper display of a temporary tag.  Just because a dealer places the temporary tag in your rear window it is still your responsibility as the driver of that vehicle to make sure the tag is visible when viewing the vehicle from the rear.

Another improper way to display a temporary tag is seen on convertibles.  According to Hammons,

A lot of times when a person purchases that vehicle they will place the temporary tag in the front windshield and that is also illegal.

Fielding a call from a KPEL NewsJunkie Trooper Hammons was asked what gives police officers escorting school buses carrying high school football teams the right to use flashing lights and sirens to get through traffic signals.  Hammons said,

In that situation if the officer has his lights on and his siren activated he is an emergency vehicle.  In that case the driver that failed to yield to an emergency vehicle would be the vehicle that would be in violation...Unless you could find something where an officer was grossly negligent in the way were operating the vehicle the officer would have the right-of-way.

Hammons had a lot more to say about obscured license plates, yielding to emergency vehicles and officers using cell phones and computers while driving.  You can listen to the interview:

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