On Memorial Day, my wife and I were traveling south on Route 4 around 1:30 p.m. The road was absolutely packed with vehicles going north and south, as it is always is on the busiest day of the year.

All of a sudden, we heard sirens and saw blue lights, so we pulled over to the breakdown lane. At that point, a Maine State Police trooper went blowing by us at a very high rate of speed. It caught a lot of other people off guard, sending them erratically off into the breakdown lane as well.

Two miles down the road was a standoff at Richardson Station. There was an official directing traffic and about 10 state police cars and a SWAT team in full gear with assault rifles in the parking lot.

At that point, I told my wife that the guy involved in the standoff wasn’t going anywhere. As we continued on our way in very heavy traffic, there were four more police cars speeding from the direction of Auburn within the next few minutes. Their driving, as other cars scrambled to move to the breakdown lane, looked like Moses parting the sea.

To me, that endangered a lot more lives then one distraught man in an old trailer.

I am pro-law enforcement, but when police know a situation is under control, as that one was, they should take a deep breath and let the adrenaline level off before they go barreling down the road.

We all want to get home safe at the end of the day.

Jeffrey Garneau, Rumford