— file photo || Oversized flags have been flown for years by local youth during the annual week-long Tater Day celebration. However, after the flags were blamed for causing a five-car pile-up last week, fewer have been seen flying through town.

Oversized flags blamed in five-car pile-up

Flags deemed a
‘safety hazard’ by
school officials

By Misti Drew
Tribune-Courier Reporter
mdrew@tribunecourier.com


MARSHALL COUNTY – When you hear the low roar of raspy pipes mixed with the smell of engine exhaust, fried funnel cakes and sugar spun cotton candy filling the air, you know Tater Day is right around the corner.

And one of the most recognizable, yet controversial sights of the annual week-long festival is the display of oversized flags by local youth.

But after an accident that occurred last Wednesday morning in front of the Dairy Queen restaurant in Draffenville, law enforcement have banned large gatherings of the flag flying vehicles.

Each morning before school, dozens of trucks, carrying the oversized flags gathered in the parking lot next to Dairy Queen.

It’s been an annual tradition since the students were told several years ago they could not amass in such numbers on school grounds due to visibility hazards for pedestrians.

It seems Wednesday’s accident gave some legitimacy to those concerns.

Marshall County Sheriff Kevin Byars was there when it happened.

“We knew the kids had been gathering in Draffenville and had reports that some were “showing out a bit,” Byars said. “I had been observing the day prior to the accident and noticed one of the boys pulling out and stopping traffic so the other vehicles could all flow out of the parking lot in a procession.”

Byars said he stopped the young man and warned him that such activity posed a traffic hazard and warned him not to block traffic again.

On Wednesday, Byars said he was once again observing the group of vehicles in Draffenville and noticed they were complying with his request.

However, when they went to pull out, the drivers were accelerating and making quick lane changes trying to catch up to one another.

“I watched a vehicle nearly side-swipe another,” Byars said. But before the sheriff could make a traffic stop on one of the vehicles, the accident occurred.

One of the drivers had unexpectedly cut in front of the path of another vehicle, causing the driver to brake hard, resulting in a five-car pile-up. “By the time I got up there, I saw all the cars banged up,” Byars said. “I knew we were going to have to talk to the group about the dangers of flying the flags.”

“We set them down and didn’t get on to them,” Byars said. “We told them what is on the flags themselves is not the issue, but that they are causing a traffic hazard by obstructing the driver’s view and covering tail lights.”

Byars said he told students the need to take the flags down was not a “demand,” it was a “request.”

Students were told the primary times of concern for flag flying were in traveling to and from school. “I am not saying you cannot fly them,” Byars said. “I am just asking you to use your best judgement, considering your own personal safety and the safety of others.”

And while public display has been left up to student’s “best judgement,” display on school grounds has been prohibited.

Marshall County principal Ricky Jones said, “Sheriff Kevin Byars told me about the accident and said that several students and some who are not students, were involved in the accident.”

Jones said Byars advised him the flags played a role in the cause of the incident.

“The oversized flags hinder vision and cause other issues,” Jones said. “We have addressed the issue here at the high school and asked students not to fly them on campus,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it is an Earnhardt or a confederate flag, they all pose a risk to student safety.”

Jones said oversized flags have been of concern to officials for sometime. “We used to ask those who chose to display the flags to arrive a bit early and park, keeping the school pedestrians as safe as possible.

“Now that they have led to an accident, we feel justified in making the request to not have them at all, so that our school lot is as safe as it can possibly be.”

Students were permitted to fly the flags on Tater Day, with one word of caution from Byars, “I asked them to be safe and be respectful.”