US180 near Santa Clara, NM

US180 bypasses Santa Clara, NM (Formerly Central, NM. It may still be listed as "Central" on older maps) but that didn't stop the city from posting a 40 mph limit on the wide, 4 lane highway that runs around the town. The local Santa Clara officers, having nothing better to do, like to cruise back and forth on US180, always with their radar units on. While US180 WB emerges from neighboring Bayard, NM going from 35 mph to 40 mph, US180 EB comes into down down a rather steep hill with a traffic signal at the bottm and a 55 to 40 mph drop in speed. The Santa Clara PD often likes to sit at the bottom of that hill.

To give you an idea how these cops are, they once gave a 64 in a 40 speed ticket to a volunteer firefighter who was on his way to help fight a fire.....AND had the emergency lights on his pickup activated.

Schweeeeet! We can only hope that the officers family/friends weren't in that fire. How terrible would you feel after that one?