Ladies & Gentlemen,
I can't express enough just how important the proper use of the equipment provided in vehicles today is.
Last night a Family and the Community lost a 17 year old young man, even though he was wearing his seat belt. I can tell you first hand, my Wife and I have had children who thought it was COOL to put their seat back in a reclined position and drive that way.
I must impress upon you just how dangerous this is. This is exactly the reason why this young man not only was ejected from this vehicle, it's why he died.
I can't tell you what the law says about driving this way but last night is forever proof that it is NO LONGER COOL!
Please impress upon your children that their seat must be in an upright position.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
29 comments:
he didnt die because of the seatbelt. He died because of running from the cops!
Maybe the cops should have ended the chase. Maybe they could be to blame?
Who knows!
Some of you people are just complete Idiots.
Him not using a seat belt properly didn't kill him. It was the excessive speed ("110 MPH") and his inability to negotiate a curve that killed him. His seat belt just didn't save him.
You know what. Ignore this message, don't say anything to your children and perhaps one day you'll be a grieving parent too?
The idea here is, "impress upon the young what you can teach them today because tomorrow may never come." Can you believe I just made that up!
A few weeks ago there was a case just like this in Worcester County, where a young man was driving at high speeds from the MSP. He ran off the road and died. His parents and friends blamed the troopers that were chasing him for killing him, and wrote a letter to the editor of an OC paper to that effect.
They weren't blaming themselves (parents) for not telling their child to use a seat belt.
Maybe if that taught him not to run from the police the end story would be different.
Man Joe sometimes you go from one extream to another.
This is the reason why alot of police departments no longer do high speed chases. But wait a min.. it was the Wicomico Co Sherrif department so everything is ok.
Its just like you saying the fire department killed that lady in Hebron, well the police should have broke off persuit of the chase. It wasent like he was a killer and robbed a bank.
If this happened in Salisbury City you would be all over it and asking for Websters head on a platter!
Let us se the video. Our new Sheriff has state of the art cars? Let us see the video. Why would police chase someone at these high speeds? Lewis needs to explain what led him to chase this kid down.
High speed chases should not be allowed unless it is a last resort. LET US SEE THE VIDEO and hear the dispatch calls.
It is public information. Come on call your pal and se if he will gve you the audio and video tapes!
You people are nucking futs. JA posted this a service to you people who have kids who are driving or just starting to.
so you people saying if someone runs from the police they should not chase them?
The police answered a call regarding a vehicle driving at a high rate of speed on a small residential street. The operator of said vehicle DECIDED to continue driving at a high rate of speed. Therefore the driver basically committed vehicular suicide. I ask those who just want to bitch just to bitch how they would feel if the police had ended the pursuit and this guy still killed an innocent driver or God forbid a child. I do not know what time this took place but remember it was on Halloween!!
My heart hurts for his family because he made a very bad decision, but those left behind have to live with the results. Take this as the tragedy it truly is and teach your children that the decisions they make can and will effect many lives.
It happened between 8:30 and 9:30 pm. 4 Police cars flew at a very high rate of speed past my house on Mt Hermon to get to Laws Rd last night. It was during prime trick or treating time.
you dumb a**. tricker treating was over at eight o'clock. and why would you even consider letting children walk in the road on mt. hermon rd. it's not like the police were driving through front yards to get there, they were on the roads. if this kid would have killed someone else you people would be complaining about that. instead, he only killed himself. let this be a harsh lesson, laws are in place for a reason.
Look, rather than name calling, (Lord knows I do enough of it) please read the articles better because I stated this guy was driving all over the place at a high rate of speed, not just 60 foot road.
A call was placed to 911 for a vehicle driving nuts all over the place and it didn't just start at Pittsville Motors where they caught up with him.
Relax a little bit and realize he was driving wild on a night when thousands of kids were on the street. This was their night and obviously not his.
I cannot believe how retarted some people are. God forbid they ever lose a child.
This is a very sad event that occured.
First let me say my heart goes out to the family of this boy.
Losing a loved one especially this young is hard no matter what the circumstances.
Why should the deputies not have done their job and tried to apprehend someone who was obviously endangering others. The chase took place in a rural area yes but he did cross Rt 50 and Mt Hermon 2 very busy roads. At 90-110 miles per hour I doubt he stopped to see if anything was coming. Now imagine what could have happened if a van load of trick-or-treaters were being transported home at the exact same time. If this boy was old enough to drive he was old enough to know that he was putting his own life at risk by running.
I may not always agree with everything Mr. Albero has to say, but he does get the information out there. Thank you for posting this reminder to parents of teenagers such as myself.
The kid chose to run, and with that accept any consciences that might endure. If protocol for police were to not pursue someone because they drove fast, then everyone would know that’s all they needed to do to avoid the police. This is a sad outcome, but the kid that was driving the car was responsible for his own death. The sheriffs were only trying to protect others on the road from a reckless and obviously suicidal driver. If he had hit someone and the police weren’t trying to stop him, everyone would be upset that the police didn’t try to do anything.
Any word on why he was running from the police? Just scared about getting a ticket for reckless driving or was there drugs/alchohol involded?
I am glad a citizen to report him. There were a lot of kids out last night, even if trick or treating ended at 8:00, how long had he been driving around like that. Lucky more people were not hurt.
Parents DO need to stress to their kids that a car is not a toy to be joy riding in. It is a machine that, when used improperly, can and will be deadly.
Actually the impact after ejection no doubt caused severe internal injuries and bleeding. These broad range injuries could have caused dozens of failures to critical systems of which any could have proved fatal. The saddest part is no matter what you think killed him,and who is at fault. a mom and a dad don't have the son they loved so much anymore. Hug your kids tonight and tell them you love them if you can't give them to someone who can!
joe for once i agree with you!!! my boy friend a local fireman (i have spoke with you before about that tho) we heard that call get toned out last nite we also new the driver of the car.......being from that area...... i think parents do need to warn their children seatbelts save lives but also to just stop if a cop wants to pull you over whatever you have in the car the punishment will be alot less than death its truely crazy how some people react...
This is a tragedy that could have been averted, but decisions were made, when added up, that resulted in the loss of the boy's life.
Some of those decisions put MY life in danger. And some of those decisions may have SAVED my life.
Decisions such as:
Driving irresponsibly and recklessly instead of safely and sanely.
Calling the police rather than ignoring a kid playing around in his car.
Deciding to flee rather than pull over.
Deciding to pursue a car at high speed who was driving "erratically" (he was probably squealing wheels and doing stupid stuff), rather than simply taking down the tag number and arresting him at his house, or more discreetly following him until he stopped on his own.
Deciding to take one more load of clean laundry upstairs before leaving for work, rather than waiting until I got home to take it up.
When I turned down Laws Road last night, on my way to work, I noticed the medivac helicopter, apparently searching for a place to land, but didn't know what it was all about. Wasn't long before I saw flashing lights up ahead, and realized there'd been an accident. Nobody was in any big rush, so I knew it had to be really bad. Since a police car had blocked the other side of the road, by the rescue trucks, I had to turn around and find another route.
And I was struck by the realization that we can be faced with life threatening circumstances at the blink of an eye, unbeknownst to us, and almost entirely the result of someone else's decisions. Ones that gained him nothing, and could have cost me all. But in this case, cost me nothing but a few minutes delay, and cost him his life. Rather than mine.
My decision was to drive sanely and responsibly. But his decision not to, and his decision to run from the cops (usually a bad one, just for the record), and their decision to pursue him at high speeds, would have put the whole nightmare directly in my path, same time, same place. On my way to work, going down Laws Road, about 9:30pm last night.
But my decision not to wait to put away laundry, putting me on the road a few minutes later, prevented me from being on the road with an inexperienced kid driver playing dangerous games with a motor vehicle. And prevented me from being on that same road he was barreling down at speeds he was not competent to handle, in a vehicle that was no doubt not capable of such handling. In addition, that extra load of clean clothes I took upstairs meant I wasn't on the same road with police cars in their high speed pursuit.
Sometimes we don't know what the results of our decisions will be, until every other decision, both in and out of our control, are factored in. Any one different decision could have resulted in a different outcome entirely; good for the boy, and bad for me, or bad for me, and good for the boy. Or bad for both.
But it goes back to HIS initial decision to get behind the wheel of the car without the intention to drive responsibly, that made my decision to carry up another load of laundry an important one.
So today, I'm here to write this, and for that, I am grateful to those who made the decisions that resulted in a positive outcome for me. But I will never know which decisions those were, and which ones merely put me in danger.
And today, someone's son is dead.
And for [i]them[/i] I am sorry.
The Helicopter was the State Police, (so I'm told) and not Medivac. You may be able to lose a Cop Car but not a Helicopter. That's another reason the Officer chose to back down.
Actually the State Police Helicopter is a Medevac, which stands for medical evacuation. Hence the Paramedics on board.
Joe...the MSP choppers are one and the same. When they aren't on medevac missions, they also assist with searches etc...dual trained so to speak.
The state police are the medivac helicopter. One in the same. The MSP aviation command has law enforcment, rescue, and medical mission capability.
While they may have been called for assistance in the chase they could also have provided medical assistance should this have not been a fatal accident.
Joe Writes:The Helicopter was the State Police, (so I'm told) and not Medivac. You may be able to lose a Cop Car but not a Helicopter. That's another reason the Officer chose to back down.
Where did you hear the Sherrif backed down? Is that proven? If so cudos to him/her. Plus a car cant out run a radio.
Would really love to hear the complete story, but probably wont get it.
Yes brother, the MSP helicopter in Salisbury is "Trooper 4". A twin turbine gasoline powered French made Dauphine helicopter which sports a 4.5 million candle power spotlight and a FLIR (forward looking infrared) system. These items are useful when assisting ground officers during pursuits and with suspect location after a vehicle bail out, etc. It has a winch above the side door to assist during rescues and can be an effective medivac which has the capability of carrying two patients in full arrest. She is manned from the hanger with a pilot and a medic. She has a top speed of about 175 mph but will fly efficiently at about 125 mph. She was preceeded in service by the Bell Jet Ranger, a smaller, and by most accounts, inferior aircraft. I believe the Rangers are still in service with NRP.
"...tricker treating was over at eight"
because you said so???
the kids don't think so.
dumb***
this notation is intended to help people, not a forum for you to insult & namecall!
Loflyer:
Excellent post!
"help people"? wow, you wouldn't have thought that by your comment second guessing everything the police did. i suggest you try putting a badge on an dealing with idiot criminals all day long and then being critisized by people who don't have the balls to do it daily. otherwise, shut the hell up, and go back to your gravy job in some office!! and before you respond with "how do you know i'm not a cop?" if you are, you should be ashamed, or you probably sit in an office anyway and have no idea what it's like to be a REAL "street cop."
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