DC driver with $12k in tickets flees US Park police, kills 3 people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP of the thread about leniency for DUIs. This is also outrageous. This person was a known serial speeder who ran red lights. It was honestly just a matter of time until they killed someone. I truly don’t understand why we basically do nothing about vehicular crimes.

Because the mayor and DC government elites make political hay catering to drivers. They go out of their way to make driving as cheap and easy as possible and with as little personal responsibility as well. Driver are allowed to behave with impunity in DC, no matter how many people die because of it. That and pandering to conservatives, basically hand in glove here, is the mayor's platform.

This.

MPD is doing absolutely zero traffic enforcement now. This is not anecdotal - look at the massive drop-off in arrests for traffic offenses in the table that "DC Crime Stats" posted on Twitter. That drop-off is sure as hell not because people have become better drivers over the past 10 years!

And the Mayor and the Council - all of the Council, I believe - have made paying camera tickets completely voluntary. There are absolutely no practical consequences now for not paying fines. Whether you are a DC resident or not, your license can be freely renewed regardless of how much you owe. The debt can't be sent to collections and the city's booting and tow truck crew is so small that the chances of being booted or towed are infinitesimal. And that risk can be completely eliminated by not street parking.

CM Pinto and the Mayor are putting out statements like they just found out about this problem, but its not news to most people in this city. People have been posting videos to Reddit, Twitter etc. for years now about drivers with thousands in outstanding tickets driving extremely badly. I personally spoke with Pinto about this soon after she took office - more than two years ago! In the meantime, they have only made the problem even worse. No one in the DC Government seems to have any interest in doing what would be necessary to take drivers like this off the street because apparently driving is a right.

Is the bottom line issue basically public safety va. equity considerations? Essentially, tickets are oppression and removing licenses from speeders with thousands of dollars of speeding tickets could disproportionally impact socioeconomically disadvantaged communities?

No, the problem is a disinclination to disrupt a transportation system that normalizes and prioritizes drivers and driving over every other consideration. And that's not a DC thing, it's an American thing.

Yes, but like all places people need cars. They use them to commute. Until we can “disrupt” car driving in general we have figure out to ensure there are consequences for unsafe driving. if the city allows for no consequences for unsafe operating speeds and people with $12,000 in speeding tickets to keep their license and there is no enough staff to even properly boots cars, what do you suggest? In a perfect world we’d be more GGW style metro/bus disruption utopia but right we let drivers keep their licenses and these types of accidents are likely to occur because of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP of the thread about leniency for DUIs. This is also outrageous. This person was a known serial speeder who ran red lights. It was honestly just a matter of time until they killed someone. I truly don’t understand why we basically do nothing about vehicular crimes.

Because the mayor and DC government elites make political hay catering to drivers. They go out of their way to make driving as cheap and easy as possible and with as little personal responsibility as well. Driver are allowed to behave with impunity in DC, no matter how many people die because of it. That and pandering to conservatives, basically hand in glove here, is the mayor's platform.

This.

MPD is doing absolutely zero traffic enforcement now. This is not anecdotal - look at the massive drop-off in arrests for traffic offenses in the table that "DC Crime Stats" posted on Twitter. That drop-off is sure as hell not because people have become better drivers over the past 10 years!

And the Mayor and the Council - all of the Council, I believe - have made paying camera tickets completely voluntary. There are absolutely no practical consequences now for not paying fines. Whether you are a DC resident or not, your license can be freely renewed regardless of how much you owe. The debt can't be sent to collections and the city's booting and tow truck crew is so small that the chances of being booted or towed are infinitesimal. And that risk can be completely eliminated by not street parking.

CM Pinto and the Mayor are putting out statements like they just found out about this problem, but its not news to most people in this city. People have been posting videos to Reddit, Twitter etc. for years now about drivers with thousands in outstanding tickets driving extremely badly. I personally spoke with Pinto about this soon after she took office - more than two years ago! In the meantime, they have only made the problem even worse. No one in the DC Government seems to have any interest in doing what would be necessary to take drivers like this off the street because apparently driving is a right.

Is the bottom line issue basically public safety va. equity considerations? Essentially, tickets are oppression and removing licenses from speeders with thousands of dollars of speeding tickets could disproportionally impact socioeconomically disadvantaged communities?

No, the problem is a disinclination to disrupt a transportation system that normalizes and prioritizes drivers and driving over every other consideration. And that's not a DC thing, it's an American thing.

Yes, but like all places people need cars. They use them to commute. Until we can “disrupt” car driving in general we have figure out to ensure there are consequences for unsafe driving. if the city allows for no consequences for unsafe operating speeds and people with $12,000 in speeding tickets to keep their license and there is no enough staff to even properly boots cars, what do you suggest? In a perfect world we’d be more GGW style metro/bus disruption utopia but right we let drivers keep their licenses and these types of accidents are likely to occur because of that.

Consequences for unsafe driving would disrupt a transportation system that normalizes and prioritizes drivers and driving over every other consideration. That's the whole point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP of the thread about leniency for DUIs. This is also outrageous. This person was a known serial speeder who ran red lights. It was honestly just a matter of time until they killed someone. I truly don’t understand why we basically do nothing about vehicular crimes.

Because the mayor and DC government elites make political hay catering to drivers. They go out of their way to make driving as cheap and easy as possible and with as little personal responsibility as well. Driver are allowed to behave with impunity in DC, no matter how many people die because of it. That and pandering to conservatives, basically hand in glove here, is the mayor's platform.

This.

MPD is doing absolutely zero traffic enforcement now. This is not anecdotal - look at the massive drop-off in arrests for traffic offenses in the table that "DC Crime Stats" posted on Twitter. That drop-off is sure as hell not because people have become better drivers over the past 10 years!

And the Mayor and the Council - all of the Council, I believe - have made paying camera tickets completely voluntary. There are absolutely no practical consequences now for not paying fines. Whether you are a DC resident or not, your license can be freely renewed regardless of how much you owe. The debt can't be sent to collections and the city's booting and tow truck crew is so small that the chances of being booted or towed are infinitesimal. And that risk can be completely eliminated by not street parking.

CM Pinto and the Mayor are putting out statements like they just found out about this problem, but its not news to most people in this city. People have been posting videos to Reddit, Twitter etc. for years now about drivers with thousands in outstanding tickets driving extremely badly. I personally spoke with Pinto about this soon after she took office - more than two years ago! In the meantime, they have only made the problem even worse. No one in the DC Government seems to have any interest in doing what would be necessary to take drivers like this off the street because apparently driving is a right.

Is the bottom line issue basically public safety va. equity considerations? Essentially, tickets are oppression and removing licenses from speeders with thousands of dollars of speeding tickets could disproportionally impact socioeconomically disadvantaged communities?

No, the problem is a disinclination to disrupt a transportation system that normalizes and prioritizes drivers and driving over every other consideration. And that's not a DC thing, it's an American thing.

Yes, but like all places people need cars. They use them to commute. Until we can “disrupt” car driving in general we have figure out to ensure there are consequences for unsafe driving. if the city allows for no consequences for unsafe operating speeds and people with $12,000 in speeding tickets to keep their license and there is no enough staff to even properly boots cars, what do you suggest? In a perfect world we’d be more GGW style metro/bus disruption utopia but right we let drivers keep their licenses and these types of accidents are likely to occur because of that.

There are plenty of solutions to disrupt car based commuting that need to continue to be heavily promoted, while heavily discouraging cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I literally called 9-11 one Sunday morning around 11am, behind a huge pickup truck coming back from boozy brunch (either that or having a diabetic shock or stroke) constantly running off the road, literally digging up the median and almost hitting numerous people. I was following him the entire length of GW parkway, from the bridge to DC all the way to 495. The police told me "we don't have enough units to send someone out." I gave them the plate and said he's going to kill someone, which I would be SHOCKED if he didn't do either that day or another day in the near future. Sad! Thanks DC

I have a lot of issues with MPD, but the delay has no jurisdiction over the GW Parkway, which is located in Virginia. GW Parkway is the jurisdiction of US Park Police.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP of the thread about leniency for DUIs. This is also outrageous. This person was a known serial speeder who ran red lights. It was honestly just a matter of time until they killed someone. I truly don’t understand why we basically do nothing about vehicular crimes.

Because the mayor and DC government elites make political hay catering to drivers. They go out of their way to make driving as cheap and easy as possible and with as little personal responsibility as well. Driver are allowed to behave with impunity in DC, no matter how many people die because of it. That and pandering to conservatives, basically hand in glove here, is the mayor's platform.

This.

MPD is doing absolutely zero traffic enforcement now. This is not anecdotal - look at the massive drop-off in arrests for traffic offenses in the table that "DC Crime Stats" posted on Twitter. That drop-off is sure as hell not because people have become better drivers over the past 10 years!

And the Mayor and the Council - all of the Council, I believe - have made paying camera tickets completely voluntary. There are absolutely no practical consequences now for not paying fines. Whether you are a DC resident or not, your license can be freely renewed regardless of how much you owe. The debt can't be sent to collections and the city's booting and tow truck crew is so small that the chances of being booted or towed are infinitesimal. And that risk can be completely eliminated by not street parking.

CM Pinto and the Mayor are putting out statements like they just found out about this problem, but its not news to most people in this city. People have been posting videos to Reddit, Twitter etc. for years now about drivers with thousands in outstanding tickets driving extremely badly. I personally spoke with Pinto about this soon after she took office - more than two years ago! In the meantime, they have only made the problem even worse. No one in the DC Government seems to have any interest in doing what would be necessary to take drivers like this off the street because apparently driving is a right.

Is the bottom line issue basically public safety va. equity considerations? Essentially, tickets are oppression and removing licenses from speeders with thousands of dollars of speeding tickets could disproportionally impact socioeconomically disadvantaged communities?

No, the problem is a disinclination to disrupt a transportation system that normalizes and prioritizes drivers and driving over every other consideration. And that's not a DC thing, it's an American thing.

Yes, but like all places people need cars. They use them to commute. Until we can “disrupt” car driving in general we have figure out to ensure there are consequences for unsafe driving. if the city allows for no consequences for unsafe operating speeds and people with $12,000 in speeding tickets to keep their license and there is no enough staff to even properly boots cars, what do you suggest? In a perfect world we’d be more GGW style metro/bus disruption utopia but right we let drivers keep their licenses and these types of accidents are likely to occur because of that.

There are plenty of solutions to disrupt car based commuting that need to continue to be heavily promoted, while heavily discouraging cars.

Honestly, I would love that. I would also love for every kid to have a pony.

Can we talk about germane and ttangible methods for ensuring motorists that shouldn’t have licenses, but do because our council passes these types of laws that allow anyone , no matter how many tickets do keep their licenses? Thanks for the graphic of car based commuting. It doesn’t seem like it will be going away any time soon. Tons of both rich and poor people have cars they like to use. Right now dangerous drivers have literally no incentive not to speed. They don’t lose their license and they know they can’t get booted. Your “drive less!” approach is not feasible, right now, to prevent accidents and injury.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine if DC got tough on crime, law enforcement, and suspended the driver's licenses of people with outrageous bills for vehicle violations. 3 more people would be alive. More examples of how being lax on criminal behavior is destroying lives:


https://wtop.com/dc/2023/03/3-dead-2-injured-after-two-vehicle-crash-on-rock-creek-parkway/

But let me guess, suspending licenses and impounding cars of reckless drivers who have insane numbers of violations will violate rights and is oppression. Tell that to the families of the dead.

A person with $12k in tickets will not refrain from driving because his license is suspended. Impounding the car would be a good idea though.

This. Suspending the license would accomplish nothing. Impounding or at least putting a boot on the car, could have helped, however.

[Anonymous]

Vision Zero could have been funded by collecting all the outstanding fines. Since Congress is all up in our business now, I hope they take on the situation on the roads, but I doubt it since they have drivers to take them everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Vision Zero where it was implemented has sucked

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine if DC got tough on crime, law enforcement, and suspended the driver's licenses of people with outrageous bills for vehicle violations. 3 more people would be alive. More examples of how being lax on criminal behavior is destroying lives:


https://wtop.com/dc/2023/03/3-dead-2-injured-after-two-vehicle-crash-on-rock-creek-parkway/

But let me guess, suspending licenses and impounding cars of reckless drivers who have insane numbers of violations will violate rights and is oppression. Tell that to the families of the dead.

Do you really think that a suspended license would stopped this guy?

This is a terrible story, twisting it to fit your agenda is sickening.

The 'agenda' of law is sickening?

GFY.

“Stop trying to incentive people to drive safely by the time tested method of ticketing and license suspense or revocation. Consequences aren’t fair. Same with violent crime and incarceration. Repeat offenders of violent crime knowing they might not be prosecuted or that they can have their records shielded in court is good policy”.

- the dc council.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine if DC got tough on crime, law enforcement, and suspended the driver's licenses of people with outrageous bills for vehicle violations. 3 more people would be alive. More examples of how being lax on criminal behavior is destroying lives:


https://wtop.com/dc/2023/03/3-dead-2-injured-after-two-vehicle-crash-on-rock-creek-parkway/

But let me guess, suspending licenses and impounding cars of reckless drivers who have insane numbers of violations will violate rights and is oppression. Tell that to the families of the dead.

Aww, it’s so. precious how you think suspending that person’s license would have stopped them from driving.

Yes, suspending their license, or revoking it, or booting their car are all better options than “allow $12k in tickets repeat speeder, dangerous driver to face no consequences and stay on the road.” Would you not agree? Or is your solution the same as they guy saying we need more public transit. Which, while true, is not helpful in this case because it doesn’t address the fact that there might be many more speeders out there, with even more tickets, who are still bopping around on the roads not giving a fk about other peoples lives as they drive carelessly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP of the thread about leniency for DUIs. This is also outrageous. This person was a known serial speeder who ran red lights. It was honestly just a matter of time until they killed someone. I truly don’t understand why we basically do nothing about vehicular crimes.

Because the mayor and DC government elites make political hay catering to drivers. They go out of their way to make driving as cheap and easy as possible and with as little personal responsibility as well. Driver are allowed to behave with impunity in DC, no matter how many people die because of it. That and pandering to conservatives, basically hand in glove here, is the mayor's platform.

This.

MPD is doing absolutely zero traffic enforcement now. This is not anecdotal - look at the massive drop-off in arrests for traffic offenses in the table that "DC Crime Stats" posted on Twitter. That drop-off is sure as hell not because people have become better drivers over the past 10 years!

And the Mayor and the Council - all of the Council, I believe - have made paying camera tickets completely voluntary. There are absolutely no practical consequences now for not paying fines. Whether you are a DC resident or not, your license can be freely renewed regardless of how much you owe. The debt can't be sent to collections and the city's booting and tow truck crew is so small that the chances of being booted or towed are infinitesimal. And that risk can be completely eliminated by not street parking.

CM Pinto and the Mayor are putting out statements like they just found out about this problem, but its not news to most people in this city. People have been posting videos to Reddit, Twitter etc. for years now about drivers with thousands in outstanding tickets driving extremely badly. I personally spoke with Pinto about this soon after she took office - more than two years ago! In the meantime, they have only made the problem even worse. No one in the DC Government seems to have any interest in doing what would be necessary to take drivers like this off the street because apparently driving is a right.

Is the bottom line issue basically public safety va. equity considerations? Essentially, tickets are oppression and removing licenses from speeders with thousands of dollars of speeding tickets could disproportionally impact socioeconomically disadvantaged communities?

No, the problem is a disinclination to disrupt a transportation system that normalizes and prioritizes drivers and driving over every other consideration. And that's not a DC thing, it's an American thing.

Yes, but like all places people need cars. They use them to commute. Until we can “disrupt” car driving in general we have figure out to ensure there are consequences for unsafe driving. if the city allows for no consequences for unsafe operating speeds and people with $12,000 in speeding tickets to keep their license and there is no enough staff to even properly boots cars, what do you suggest? In a perfect world we’d be more GGW style metro/bus disruption utopia but right we let drivers keep their licenses and these types of accidents are likely to occur because of that.

Consequences for unsafe driving would disrupt a transportation system that normalizes and prioritizes drivers and driving over every other consideration. That's the whole point.

You all are really nuts and you don’t even realize it

[Anonymous]

This is the impact of lax public safety and everyone trying to highjack it for a pet agenda.

https://dailyvoice.com/virginia/fairfax/news/hearts-break-after-triple-fatal-rideshare-crash-in-dc/859125/

3 decent, hardworking men, with their lives ahead of them, who were supporting families, are now dead. They came to the US to pursue opportunities and contributed in a positive way. They were POC.

The arguments against basic public safety are BS. The Council has disincentivized traffic stops and MoCo is considering banning most.

THIS is the human toll in service of ideology. And use of race and poverty IS BS. Poor, hardworking, good people of color are the primary VICTIMS of the criminals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the impact of lax public safety and everyone trying to highjack it for a pet agenda.

https://dailyvoice.com/virginia/fairfax/news/hearts-break-after-triple-fatal-rideshare-crash-in-dc/859125/

3 decent, hardworking men, with their lives ahead of them, who were supporting families, are now dead. They came to the US to pursue opportunities and contributed in a positive way. They were POC.

The arguments against basic public safety are BS. The Council has disincentivized traffic stops and MoCo is considering banning most.

THIS is the human toll in service of ideology. And use of race and poverty IS BS. Poor, hardworking, good people of color are the primary VICTIMS of the criminals.

This happened on National Park Service road in DC, why are you bringing up Montgomery County?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP of the thread about leniency for DUIs. This is also outrageous. This person was a known serial speeder who ran red lights. It was honestly just a matter of time until they killed someone. I truly don’t understand why we basically do nothing about vehicular crimes.

Because the mayor and DC government elites make political hay catering to drivers. They go out of their way to make driving as cheap and easy as possible and with as little personal responsibility as well. Driver are allowed to behave with impunity in DC, no matter how many people die because of it. That and pandering to conservatives, basically hand in glove here, is the mayor's platform.

This.

MPD is doing absolutely zero traffic enforcement now. This is not anecdotal - look at the massive drop-off in arrests for traffic offenses in the table that "DC Crime Stats" posted on Twitter. That drop-off is sure as hell not because people have become better drivers over the past 10 years!

And the Mayor and the Council - all of the Council, I believe - have made paying camera tickets completely voluntary. There are absolutely no practical consequences now for not paying fines. Whether you are a DC resident or not, your license can be freely renewed regardless of how much you owe. The debt can't be sent to collections and the city's booting and tow truck crew is so small that the chances of being booted or towed are infinitesimal. And that risk can be completely eliminated by not street parking.

CM Pinto and the Mayor are putting out statements like they just found out about this problem, but its not news to most people in this city. People have been posting videos to Reddit, Twitter etc. for years now about drivers with thousands in outstanding tickets driving extremely badly. I personally spoke with Pinto about this soon after she took office - more than two years ago! In the meantime, they have only made the problem even worse. No one in the DC Government seems to have any interest in doing what would be necessary to take drivers like this off the street because apparently driving is a right.

Is the bottom line issue basically public safety va. equity considerations? Essentially, tickets are oppression and removing licenses from speeders with thousands of dollars of speeding tickets could disproportionally impact socioeconomically disadvantaged communities?

No, the problem is a disinclination to disrupt a transportation system that normalizes and prioritizes drivers and driving over every other consideration. And that's not a DC thing, it's an American thing.

Yes, but like all places people need cars. They use them to commute. Until we can “disrupt” car driving in general we have figure out to ensure there are consequences for unsafe driving. if the city allows for no consequences for unsafe operating speeds and people with $12,000 in speeding tickets to keep their license and there is no enough staff to even properly boots cars, what do you suggest? In a perfect world we’d be more GGW style metro/bus disruption utopia but right we let drivers keep their licenses and these types of accidents are likely to occur because of that.

Consequences for unsafe driving would disrupt a transportation system that normalizes and prioritizes drivers and driving over every other consideration. That's the whole point.

You all are really nuts and you don’t even realize it

So you think DC should increase automated enforcement and impound cars with multiple citations from speed/red light/stop sign cameras? That would make the roads safer. I hope you're not one of the "people need cars to go places" people, though, because it would also interfere with people's ability to go places by car.

[Anonymous]

I do. I also believe they should be able to chase, license and impound ATV. I know someone who has 20+ citation and he is a ticking time bomb who thinks laws in DC are for suckers.

I bike and I drive. But I’m not a demagogue. I don’t think you should be doing donuts in the streets, endangering the others whatever your background