Stop the Maryland Unsafe Driver

Posts Tagged ‘reckless’

(CENTREVILLE, MD) April 13, 2011 – After a review of investigative information by the county state’s attorney, Maryland State Police have charged a driver in connection with yesterday’s Queen Anne’s County crash that sent 17 people to area hospitals.

The driver charged in the crash is identified as Carl Trenz Jr., 49, of the 100- block of Big Holly Court, in Stevensville, Maryland.   At about 1:00 p.m. today, a state trooper issued traffic citations to Trenz at his home.  He was charged with reckless driving, negligent driving, driver turning left failure to yield right of way to a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction, failure to yield right of way at a through highway, and failure to stop at an intersecting highway stop sign and yield the right of way.

Trenz was the driver of a 2010 Volkswagen Toureg that State Police investigators believe pulled from White Marsh Road shortly before 9:00 a.m. yesterday onto southbound Rt. 213 and into the path of a tour bus carrying kindergarten children and their parents.   Sixteen of the 35 children and adults on-board the bus were transported to hospitals for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.  Trenz was also transported to a hospital where he was treated and released.

Maryland State Police investigators reviewed evidence from the investigation this morning with Queen Anne’s County State’s Attorney Lance Richardson.  After a review of the evidence, State’s Attorney Richardson approved the motor vehicle charges that were issued to Trenz.

The investigation is continuing.

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There are speeding tickets and penalties for driving drunk. But if an obscure provision in Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget proposal becomes law, motorists in Maryland will have another sanction to worry about: a fine for bad driving.

Get caught going 85 on the highway twice in two years? On top of the $1,080 in traffic fines you’ve earned, you’d owe the state $1,500. There would be a new fee for drunken driving too: A conviction would cost an additional $500 every year for three years.

A driver who didn’t pay the surcharge could see his or her license suspended.

via Extra fine for bad driving part of proposed state budget – Baltimore Sun.

(Now this is really odd. Vallario, also a Democrat, was vehemently opposed to drunk driving penalties that involved installing breathalyzers in repeat offender’s cars.  His pal O’Malley would like to tax them. and hard. I suppose he sees a revenue stream. Statistically the gov-man knows drunks will drink and drive again and then owe more taxes. He also already knows that drivers in our state have developed bad habits that could – help with revenue! O’Malley and his pals would seem like heroes zapping the bad guys. the think so because they believe the right thinks so.

Well, if you have not yet guessed it, I DID NOT vote for Mr. O’Malley and his henchmen.  He’s a progressive. The means justifies the end and if he can “justify the means” he believes he will achieve his end.

Yes drunks and bad drivers deserve what they get, but I believe that that the MUD license tag is a better idea. Hitting the bad driver in the pocket book is just the cost of driving and will not in any way effect behavior.

Behavior is changed by people who want to change their behavior. At STOP the MUD we insist that people will and can change their behavior when enough good examples surround them.

What is O’Malley going to do about the state government employees that drive recklessly? How about the police? The off duty police and their families with FP and FOP plates? The firefighters? I’m guessing the good old boys will protect themselves unless HONEST police and fire managers step in to change things.

At STOP the MUD we believe that MAN CAN GOVERN HIMSELF without the help of people like O’Malley. It is high time Marylanders decided to drive safely for safety and to protect themselves from Annapolis.)

Police said that John Barr, 82, of Essex, was driving a 1994 Chevrolet Celebrity station wagon south on Stemmers Run Road when a 2000 Nissan truck driven by Elmer Williams, 51, ran a red light at the intersection with Eastern Boulevard, striking the station wagon at about 2:30 p.m.

via Baltimore County police identify man, 82, killed in Essex crash – baltimoresun.com.

(Red-light runners kill people. Red-light and stop-sign running are part of the state-wide pandemic of reckless driving in Maryland. Almost everyone does it. It appears that if you continue to do it you run a great risk of either killing another or being killed yourself.

This holiday season give yourself the gift of safe driving. Your life may depend upon it. Be an example setter to Marylanders.)

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.)

He has been charged with: reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, hindering and obstructing a police officer, failing to comply with a lawful order, operating a vessel under the influence of alcohol, operating a vessel while impaired by alcohol and attempting to elude a police officer.

Read the ENTIRE story at the Washington Post:

via Post Now – Arundel boater facing several charges.

Job Smith, 19, was charged with reckless driving, negligent driving, failure to obey a traffic control device and failure to wear his seatbelt, according to a state police press release issued Wednesday.

The ENTIRE story is available at Herald-Mail.com:

via Maryland: Boonsboro man charged in connection with SUV accident.

Trooper First Class Josh White said witnesses reported seeing Job K. Smith’s SUV speeding east up Braddock Mountain past a pickup truck in a reckless manner moments before the 11:35 p.m. crash along U.S. 40A east of Maryland Avenue.

via Police mulling charges in crash that injured three – The Frederick News-Post Online.

(This kind of behavior is all too common in our state. The police and District Attorney should throw the book at this reckless driver. What is a suitable punishment for this person?)

Outrageous driving is now celebrated in a TV commercial. How special. Volkswagen has a commercial with three people in a new VW, two men in the front seats and one hysterical female in the back. I didn’t pay any attention to the commercial until the woman started SCREAMING, “SHOOT THE GAP, SHOOT THE GAP.”

She wanted the driver to maneuver the vehicle so the car would drive between two large semi trailer trucks at high speed on a busy highway.  She wouldn’t stop screaming until he did.  I couldn’t believe a car company would create such a commercial. It was beyond comprehension. Is this anthropological evidence that unsafe behaviors are a routine part of our driving culture now?

Now any of us driving highways with trucks are going to have to watch out for idiots looking for a gap to shoot.  My guess is that truck drivers won’t be too happy with what we should call the Volkswagen Gap Maneuver.  As an advocate of safer driving I see the commercial as grossly irresponsible.

It is not funny. It certainly didn’t sell me on Volkswagen.

Thanks to our reader “The Human Car” from Baltimore Spokes we have the video! The dealership mentioned appears to be in Pennsylvania.

“We need to develop a traffic safety culture that does not condone driving while distracted ” said Vernon Betkey director of Maryland s highway safety office.

via Highway officials fight rise in ‘distracted driving’ accidents | Washington Examiner.

(Yes, and we must also deal with the culture of recklessness on our highways as well. Too many dead and too many injured.)

BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―Police are concerned as the weather becomes nicer more people will take to riding illegal dirt bikes in the city.

(Reporter Weijia Jiang wrote an excellent story about the annual reckless driving Baltimore experiences by kids on dirt motorcycles. Baltimore tax payers and neighborhood leaders need to deal with this. Like all serious traffic problems they only get resolved when enough people start to care.)

via Warm Weather Brings Out More Dirt Bike Riders – wjz.com.