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Posts Tagged ‘rage’
VBF has the bad news that the Three Foot Passing and Following too close law was tabled in the House Transportation Committee by what was eventually an 11-10 vote. Someone who was there wrote:
via TheWashCycle.com:
StoptheMUD’s comment below: (By the way, please do visit “The Wash Cycle.”
(I’m a Republican and I believe in the Maryland three-foot bicycle safety rule. One wonders the real reason why a Republican in Virginia is keeping bicycling risks greater by ignoring the three foot rule. My experience driving in Virginia says to me that it is equally as dangerous as driving in Maryland and perhaps even more so. The cry for the three-foot rule is a cry for driving safety as well. Like seat belt enforcement the three-foot rule is a round-a-bout way to mitigate the carnage because driving safety is not a priority for individual residents of Maryland or Virginia. We’re using these laws to wake people up and give law enforcement some way to issue citations to the most egregiously unsafe among us.
Then we do have to stop and point out that states are asking for and getting special legislation to protect police officers on their traffic stops and those laws require drivers to move to another lane or slow down sharply as a courtesy to the officer. Fine. Extend the same courtesy to the rest of us and also encourage police and their families driving cars with police vanity plates to start obeying traffic laws.
Government is not doing well here. It sends confusing message, obfuscates debate, and only tends to do what garners a vote. Government can’t really help us. What is required is that every Virginian and ever Marylander make the choice to drive safely. Then government is out of the picture. Existing laws, it might be argued, already protect pedestrians and bicyclists. If those laws are not working then we need to find out why, but first everyone needs to obey the traffic regulations and drive safely.
There is also the “Get Off the BUS option. States that are not considered “bicycle safety conscious” could be designated “Bicycle Unfriendly States.” Either get off that BUS and join us or we won’t bicycle in your state. You cannot ride where you do not feel safe. Maryland seems to be improving in that area but not Virginia.)
Folks, STOPtheMUD does NOT encourage and we specifically condemn anyone pacing a speeding driver at the same illegal speed. You cannot justify your own behavior by pointing to someone else’s bad behavior. We get it. It’s dramatic focusing your cam first on your speedometer and then on the driver ahead of you. It’s also a senseless risk that puts you, your passengers, and the rest of us in danger.
We have found a few of these videos on YouTube by drivers angry at speeding police officers. You can report them. Call their agency, state date and time, your legal speed and your estimate of the other driver’s speed.
Please don’t speed up to film your speedometer. Please don’t do it.
A proposal before the General Assembly would increase taxes on alcohol by a dime a drink, thereby raising about $216 million in new revenue.
via A dime a drink would help solve Maryland’s budget woes.
(There is some seriously fallacious logic in this whole sin-tax approach. First, Maryland is in this pinch because Mr. O’Malley and his tax-and-spend Democrats wouldn’t tighten the purse strings. It wasn’t until recently you actually heard them wince a little. Predictably a progressive will then search for new ways to tax in order increase spending. When roads were a priority Maryland went from perfectly adequate schools to building palatial schools. Maryland created a millionaire’s tax that fell flat because the millionaire’s left the state taking jobs with them.
A more inexpensive approach to traffic safety would be to encourage Marylanders, like the Delegate behind license tag 82C, to drive safely. Look up 82C on Zapatag.com. We would save far more cash every year because residents wouldn’t be crashing into one another.
Annapolis ought to be thinking about ways to stop increasing the financial burden on its residents and taxpayers rather than finding new ways to take our money. I don’t care what the tax is on.
I say we keep the weasels out of our wallets and start FOCUSING on the primary causes of collisions in this state – people.
This liquor tax idea is as dumb as reducing the brightness of highway lighting. Make unsafe driving easier and less bumpy on repaired roads or make any kind of driving really unsafe on highways where the lights have been dimmed. Lawmakers are looking for a way to obfuscate and make less painful the obvious cuts that MUST occur now due to bad financial stewardship by those in power. Sin taxes stir up the masses and distract them from what is really going on in Annapolis.
Every Marylander has it in their own power to help reduce state spending on emergency services, and who knows what else just by driving safely. You stop and think what a contribution that would be to the bottom line.
Tax and spend or crash and spend. It could be your choice.)
The change in law stemmed from research by Assistant Sheriff Major Joseph Montminy, who noticed that too many officers were subpoenaed for court only to find out the driver failed to appear. Major Montminy also noted many officers were in court on their scheduled days off, costing the agency thousands of dollars in overtime.
via Recent Change in Traffic Court Proceedings Has Roots in Chas. Co. – Southern Maryland Headline News.
(So this is the agency you can focus your rage on when you forget to do as the law says and have your license suspended. This law is going to backfire big time. Just a prediction.
Remember if you want to challenge the citation YOU have to schedule the trial date. The state is no longer doing it.)
Now that a second Maryland player has suffered a season-ending injury in an on-campus motor scooter accident, Coach Ralph Friedgen plans to write a letter to players’ parents urging them to discourage or forbid their sons from riding scooters.
Washington Post:
via Friedgen wants a scooter ban after 2nd player injured.
David Auble, 24, of Peach Bottom Township received traffic citations for violations such as speeding. He paid fines in Maryland, but the record of the crash never made it on his Pennsylvania driver’s license.
via Drivers cross state lines, leaving behind a record – The York Daily Record.
(There is something odd about this story. The first thing is that Pennsylvania motor vehicle folks COULD use the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS) to query Maryland for a driving record before each renewal. The second is that many states ALREADY swap driving histories when an out-of-state driver receives a citation in another state.
My first question is why two ADJOINING states are not swapping driving records in 2010? It is unconscionable not to share records. Reckless aggressive drivers or drunks could continue driving in their home state with no penalty whatsoever.
In the article I read, “Rendell’s office and Rep. Richard Geist, R-Blair County told him that the only thing he could do was to work with the Maryland legislature toward harsher negligence laws for future cases of traffic fatalities.” That’s poppycock, spin, drivel, and walking away from the facts at hand. Maryland should be forwarding driving histories to other states when residents of those states misbehave here and VICE VERSA. Those other states MUST add those convictions to local records and hold the driver accountable in their state in ADDITION to any fines paid where the conviction took place.
Pennsylvania has a role to play here as well and should not be dancing around the problem or throwing it like a political football. Governor Rendell can initiate changes in Pennsylvania law and make contact with Maryland to do the same. Someone can start the ball rolling.
We encourage Mr. Kohl to make appointments in Annapolis and get the ball rolling here is Rendell’s office decides to sit on this issue. If there was ever a time not to take no for an answer this is the time.)
Maria Alejandra Espinoza, 23, faces sentencing Feb. 18 before U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton for involuntary manslaughter and maiming while driving intoxicated, both felonies.
Thank the Washington Post for following up on this drunk driving tragedy:
via Clarksville women pleads guilty to two charges in Charlie Davies crash.
CLARKSBURG, Md.(CBS) A Montgomery County police officer who struck and paralyzed a young boy with his cruiser received a $185 speeding ticket. It is unclear whether the officer was disciplined by the state or the police department.
(We need on and off duty public safety AND their families to start setting a driving example so this kind of tragedy does not happen again)
The Diamondback’s editorial cartoon, a blatant shot at Pete DeSouza’s injury. Via Patrick Stevens and Jeff Barker. The team is, uh, mildly upset about it.And I agree; it’s just classless. The guy broke two of his legs and could’ve died. Aside from just being unfunny what’s the point of the joke, is she saying that football players are now naturally inclined to crash on scooters?, it’s extraordinarily insensitive.
(StoptheMUD agrees! The cartoon is tasteless, insensitive, but telling. Marylanders appear to be more ready to joke about the proximate causes of injury and death on our roads rather than do something about it. What the heck is funny about this? How about getting students together to let them know what happened and why so that collisions like it never happen again. There is nothing funny about a collision that breaks someone’s legs. We give the author a grade of F. Fail!
And excuse me school paper, where is the University on scooter policy now? Reading the comments on this article at Testudo I read that some students are fed up with the athletes driving scooters in an unsafe manner. Is that true? What is being done about it? We are back to StoptheMUD’s “example setter” argument. Athletes should be setting an example in school. Perhaps if they do the world will have fewer bad examples in professional sports. The University had better investigate this and share with everyone the final results. As a taxpayer I want to know and we believe the parents of students ought to know. Bottom line if you cannot drive safely on campus then you will not drive on campus.
Our prayers for a recovery go to the victim of this tragedy and to all of his family and friends.)
SHA encourages all motorists to drive responsibly and “Think Orange” while driving through highway work zones by driving the appropriate speed and remaining alert at all times. Learn more about work zone safety and the Choose Safety for Life campaign at www.choosesafetyforlife.com.
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