3 killed in crash on River Road

[Anonymous]

I'm astounded by the sheer desperation of some to pin guilt on the 20 yr old driving a BMW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Witnesses are notoriously unreliable. Speaking to someone who spoke to a witness means you have third hand information at best. Most likely many missing or incorrect details.

+1. Remember the DC sniper? Everyone was looking for a guy in a white van, because that's what witnesses were sure they saw. It turned out not to Bette case at all.

No, that wasn't what all the witnesses said, it (the white van) was what the police decided to look for despite what the witnesses said.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Obviously no one can know how fast that car was driving until the accident investigation is complete. However, I would say that based on the very little bit that we do know (car shoved into a ditch, jaws of life) it does sound like a higher than average chance that the driver of the BMW was going pretty fast.

I don't *know* that is true but I would really be surprised to find out that it wasn't true, kwim? But I've been surprised before so who knows.

Don't newer model, higher end vehicles like this BMW include onboard boxes that record metrics like speed and which can be examined after a crash? If so, investigators will know soon enough.

Yes, almost certainly the car is equipped with an event data recorder. The car might also have BMW assist which would provide data about the impact force and so on (similar to OnStar).

Who is allowed access to an 'event data recorder' though? Do you need a court order?

[Anonymous]

Latest update from Principal.

Dear Whitman Community, I am thrilled to convey that Congressman Van Hollen’s office has assured me that they are 100% behind the effort to get a traffic signal installed at the River Road/Pyle Road intersection. In a conference call with Congressman’s Van Hollen’s Office today, we were told that no additional emails or phone calls are needed. They are fully convinced and are aggressively putting steps into motion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not put a traffic signal there?

Because it is a major commuting thoroughfare. And traffic lights can increase accidents.

This is what I wonder about. If traffic lights can increase accidents, surely there is a way to calculate when the benefits will still outweigh the drawbacks? How can we (local citizens without much expertise) get access to this knowledge?

That's true , they can cause more accidents, but install a red light camera there and you want have that problem.
The main reason there are more accidents is because someone still in the intersection wants to make a left and someone else coming from the other direction either runs the light it makes a right turn on red without stopping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ignorance and obsessive questioning about insurance here is astounding.

Yep, I just posted about this...

Why? It's a legit issue. It's not like we're ONLY commenting on money -- I have expressed more than once sorrow for this poor girl.

Because my guess, is that a bunch of you are thinking the 'evil insurance company will screw her because....greed'

It's not YOUR issue. She has close family in-state. It's theirs. If you are concerned about money, donate to the fund.

I actually find this to be a fairly interesting line of inquiry that extends well beyond this very unfortunate circumstance. If the health insurance policyholder is deceased, what provisions exist for continuation of coverage for the policyholder's dependents? If anything productive can come from threads like this, maybe it's that someone can learn something that would prevent a financial calamity on top of what would be a truly devastating event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How soon until they know an official cause?

Maryland is a no fault state, so we might never know. The police aren't going to the press with the forensics now or later. BTW, they already have everything - witness statements, engine recorder info, spoke with survivors.

No forensics? Wow, that seems pretty incredible given that 3 people died in this crash. I would assume that accident reconstruction would be standard procedure in a tragedy like this.

PP is uninformed. The accident reconstruction team in MoCo does a full analysis every time there is an accident that involves a death.

BTW, the cause is failure to yield to oncoming traffic.

I was unaware that the cause had been determined. I am sure you would like to provide a reference to the official statement that thus proclaimed the cause, wouldn't you?

http://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2010/transportation/title-21/subtitle-4/21-402

Thanks for the law. But that says nothing about the cause.

And if the cause is found that the dad was at fault you would be fine with the BMW driver suing the estate? Why are you so intent on hoping the live person was at fault.

This is pretty close to an open and shut case. I hope they do toxicology on the dad too, what if he was drunk. The public should know, right?

Typically the bmw driver would first sue the volt drivers insurance company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not put a traffic signal there?

Because it is a major commuting thoroughfare. And traffic lights can increase accidents.

This is what I wonder about. If traffic lights can increase accidents, surely there is a way to calculate when the benefits will still outweigh the drawbacks? How can we (local citizens without much expertise) get access to this knowledge?

That's true , they can cause more accidents, but install a red light camera there and you want have that problem.
The main reason there are more accidents is because someone still in the intersection wants to make a left and someone else coming from the other direction either runs the light it makes a right turn on red without stopping.

[Anonymous]

Another update from Principal.

In brief, the funeral for the Buarque De Macedo family members who perished this weekend will be held this Thursday morning, March 3rd, at 11:00 at St. Vincent Chapel on the campus of Catholic University. The chapel is small, and the family would like only those that really knew the family members to sit in the chapel, but there is a lot of seating attached to but not part of the chapel. Instead of flowers, there is a scholarship fund being set up for Catholic University in the family’s name. More details will follow tomorrow. The family has requested that no media attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ignorance and obsessive questioning about insurance here is astounding.

Yep, I just posted about this...

Why? It's a legit issue. It's not like we're ONLY commenting on money -- I have expressed more than once sorrow for this poor girl.

Because my guess, is that a bunch of you are thinking the 'evil insurance company will screw her because....greed'

It's not YOUR issue. She has close family in-state. It's theirs. If you are concerned about money, donate to the fund.

Give me a break. None of this is OUR issue. I mean none of us was there. So why have people been talking about this for dozens of pages and speculating re what happened and whose fault it was? Fault IS our issue but insurance isn't??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm literally hitting my head against the wall. First of all, her family is a family of doctors - don't you think ONE of them has notified the insurance company of the event? Second, don't you think ONE of them will think to pay the next premium? Third, there is usually a 30 day grace period by law. Last, it's really nobody's business.

Between this and the person in the political thread who intended to vote in BOTH the democratic and republican primaries, and had NO CLUE that wasn't allowed.....

She should be eligible for child only insurance with the death of a parent being the "life event". Hard to know what the coverage is under the parents policy. My insurance is paid automatically in advance so would be paid for March.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Latest update from Principal.

Dear Whitman Community, I am thrilled to convey that Congressman Van Hollen’s office has assured me that they are 100% behind the effort to get a traffic signal installed at the River Road/Pyle Road intersection. In a conference call with Congressman’s Van Hollen’s Office today, we were told that no additional emails or phone calls are needed. They are fully convinced and are aggressively putting steps into motion.

Interesting, since Van Hollen is a member of Congress and the Federal government has no authority of River Road. MD SHA does, as it's a state road.

I saw a note from Bill Frick, who IS a member of Bethesda's _state_ delegation in Annapolis, that he's working with MD SHA on it. That makes a lot more sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the traffic light, why not consider a light like the one in front of Tilden Middle School on Old Georgetown Road. The majority of the time, it just blinks yellow. But during school drop off and pick up, it is a usable light to allow cars to easily get into and out of the school. Unfortunately, it wouldn't have helped here since this happened at night...

Whitman's principal can address this in an instant. There is (or used to be) a gate on Whitman property that connects the service road to Whitman's back entrance. Simply close that gate during school hours, and no one will make the turn since it's useless then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the traffic light, why not consider a light like the one in front of Tilden Middle School on Old Georgetown Road. The majority of the time, it just blinks yellow. But during school drop off and pick up, it is a usable light to allow cars to easily get into and out of the school. Unfortunately, it wouldn't have helped here since this happened at night...

Whitman's principal can address this in an instant. There is (or used to be) a gate on Whitman property that connects the service road to Whitman's back entrance. Simply close that gate during school hours, and no one will make the turn since it's useless then.

The crash occurred at around 7 pm on a Saturday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ignorance and obsessive questioning about insurance here is astounding.

Yep, I just posted about this...

Why? It's a legit issue. It's not like we're ONLY commenting on money -- I have expressed more than once sorrow for this poor girl.

Because my guess, is that a bunch of you are thinking the 'evil insurance company will screw her because....greed'

It's not YOUR issue. She has close family in-state. It's theirs. If you are concerned about money, donate to the fund.

I actually find this to be a fairly interesting line of inquiry that extends well beyond this very unfortunate circumstance. If the health insurance policyholder is deceased, what provisions exist for continuation of coverage for the policyholder's dependents? If anything productive can come from threads like this, maybe it's that someone can learn something that would prevent a financial calamity on top of what would be a truly devastating event.

Call your insurance company and ask. Done.