NEW STATUTE ON FUNERAL PROCESSIONS

Come Saturday, it won't just be bad manners to pass a funeral procession. Except on interstate highways, it will be against the law in Missouri.

Senate Bill 270, sponsored by Sen. Steve Ehlmann, R-St. Charles, requires pedestrians and motorists to yield to a funeral procession. Police and other emergency personnel don't have to yield.

The new law prohibits other drivers from driving between, joining or passing a funeral procession.

Violators face a maximum fine of $100.

The statute also requires drivers in funeral processions to have their flashing emergency lights on and to follow the car in front as closely as is practical and safe.

Under the law, the lead funeral vehicle, either the funeral car or hearse, must be equipped with at least one lighted, circulating amber or purple light, or alternating flashing headlights. The light or lights must be visible up to 500 feet away.

The law allows municipalities to adopt similar ordinances.

Funeral directors and police praise the law, although one local funeral director said he wasn't familiar with all the provisions.

Bruce Dockins, owner of McCombs Funeral Home, said he doubted he would have lights on his funeral vehicles by Saturday when the law takes effect. He said many other funeral homes likely won't have their vehicles up to speed either.

"I think it is going to take some time," he said.

But Dockins said the law should help improve traffic safety for funeral processions.

"Up there in front, it is frightening," he said.

Other motorists don't always recognize that cars are in a funeral procession.

"Their eyes are looking at you, but their minds are somewhere else," he said.

Dockins said funeral processions are threatened by the rush of traffic. "Everybody is in such a hurry to get to where they are going."

Cliff Ford, president of Ford and Sons Funeral Home, said the funeral home is in the process getting lights for its three hearses and two lead cars.

Ford said circulating lights may be mounted on the dashboards temporarily. The funeral home is looking at installing flashing headlights.

Ford said the new law should help make funeral processions safer for participants and the general public.

Bill Kuss, co-owner of Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel, thinks the law is needed.

In Cape Girardeau and Jackson, police routinely escort funeral processions. But when there is an emergency, police officers get called off escort duty.

"If they are busy, we don't get an escort," he said.

Even with a police escort, there can be accidents. Three or four months ago a motorist ran into a pallbearer's car at the intersection of Independence and West End Boulevard, Kuss said.

Sgt. J.R. Davis heads the traffic division for the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Among other things, the traffic officers provide escorts for funeral processions.

Cape Girardeau police escort some 200 funerals a year, he estimated.

Davis said the law's requirement for motorists to use their flashing lights in a funeral procession should help.

Headlights aren't as noticeable. "Many times headlights might be on, but on a bright, sunny day you can't tell that," he said.

By using their emergency flashers, funeral-procession participants should be more visible to other motorists and pedestrians, he said.

Cape Girardeau has an ordinance making it illegal for motorists to cut into the middle of a funeral procession. But Davis said that has been difficult to enforce because motorists weren't always aware that the other vehicles were in a funeral procession.

In the past, the state has had no laws governing funeral processions.

Sherry Anderson, executive director of the Missouri Funeral Directors Association, said few states have laws regarding funeral processions.

Illinois has a law giving funeral processions right of way at intersections. It allows other motorists to pass the procession if passing can be done safely and without interfering with the funeral party.

Since there was no law in Missouri, funeral procession etiquette wasn't required on drivers' tests.

Years ago drivers were taught by their parents and grandparents to make way for funeral processions.

"I still do," said Anderson. "I pull off the side of the road and stop my car."

Anderson's association has some 750 members, mostly funeral home directors.

With the new law, the requirements dealing with funeral processions will be part of the manual for driver's education, she said.

Anderson said many police and sheriff's departments no longer provide funeral escorts. That makes it all the more important for funeral home cars and hearses to have special lights, she said.

"The most important thing is we are protecting the family and the people who are honoring that person who has died."

The custom not to impede a funeral procession goes back to ancient times, she said. People feared that some dissatisfied spirit might take advantage of any break in the procession, escape the body and start haunting the living.