Funeral procession etiquette in the South

Bob Landry, 70, of Kennesaw, passed away on January 5, 2015. Georgia Motor Escorts helped to escort the decorated Vietnam Veteran from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Marietta to his final resting place at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton.
“You can’t do enough for the individuals that laid their life on the line to protect us and provide us with the freedoms that we’ve,” said Georgia Motor Escorts owner Jerry Braswell.
Braswell and his team captured helmet camera video of cars pulling to the side as Landry’s funeral procession moved by.
“There’s a lot of people, my age or older that if there's any possible way that they can pull off to the side, they will,” said Braswell.
“For people to pause and pay that moment of respect whether they know the person or not, I think that's a wonderful thing that we have here in our Southern traditions,” said Terry Pendley
While it is a Southern tradition, it’s not a law, for any Southern state. According to Georgia law, funeral processions have the right of way. For drivers, it’s illegal to interrupt a procession, join one or pass one on a 2-lane highway.
“You’ll see workers on the side of the road that stop and take their safety helmets off and put on and you’ll see people that will get out of their vehicle and put their hat over their chest as we go by and then there are others who blow the horn and go on by so we have a little bit of all of it here,” said Braswell.
Jerry said it appears to him fewer young drivers and transplants to Georgia will pull over.
“If your mother passed away you would want everyone to show as much respect as possible,” said Braswell. “I’m right serious about it (his job). All of our officers are. We do everything that we possibly can to let people know that this is something to show respect for.”