One year ago, 21 year old Tressa Russell ran over 66 year old Stanly Brown (February 11, 2009) when she drove away from a pizzeria.\u00a0 Last week she was sentenced to 3 years of probation, 240 hours of community service and a fine of $5,400.00.\u00a0 What bothers me is not the lack of incarceration but her utter deficient humanity, oh yeah I didn’t mention, she thought she hit a pothole so she kept on driving. \u00a0She only returned to the scene after she called a friend who told her there were police and ambulances where she said she hit that pothole.<\/p>\n
Link to the story from the Albany Times Union : http:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/AspStories\/story.asp?storyID=896427<\/a><\/p>\n In an exact quote from her statement printed by the Albany Times Union, she plead guilty primarily, \u201c<\/em>so I could get my car back and to make the victim’s sisters happy for the loss of their brother.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n The article continued, “The defendant (Tressa Russell) appears to be more upset about the loss of her car and license than the loss of the life of the victim, Stanley Brown.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n In court, Russell’s attorney, Joseph McCoy, said his client was remorseful. He said his client’s decision to leave the scene in no way contributed to the victim’s death.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Just hitting Stanley with her car contributed to him dying.<\/p>\n I hope that our cultural apathy takes a break when hearing story\u2019s like this, until that happens I’m going to continue talking about it.<\/p>\n At least Mercedes Benz is working on an affordable<\/a><\/em> <\/a>car that senses when the operator is getting drowsy through a complicated system of behavior monitoring, a feature they call ATTENTION ASSIST http:\/\/bit.ly\/bGQ6B0<\/a> (An article if you dig reading propaganda like I do or you could just check the videos below).<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=weeM9FZlQig<\/a><\/p>\n Cooler feature\u00a0 :<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7WoYVNZ31Ow&feature=related<\/a><\/p>\n Volvo has also developed a slick safety system where the car automatically brakes in the event an obstacle pops up.\u00a0 If the car senses the driver is not braking hard enough the system will engage more power to the brakes to avoid a collision.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SQh5Fp2wJyE<\/a><\/p>\n *please note this video is almost 4 years old, these features are currently available now in 2010.<\/p>\n These are amazing advances to keep people safe, except the focus remains on protecting the driver from himself.<\/p>\n Since saving drivers is crucial to car companies, how about developing a sensor (similar to those high frequency warnings used to steer deer away from our precious grills) that alerts the driver they are in a populated zone and to: \u201cBe careful, there are humans around, walking and cycling, watch out! They may hurt us!\u201d\u00a0 Of course the effort being to spare car buyers from 240 hours of community service or the nuisance of losing their car after committing manslaughter.<\/p>\n Yesterday the Maryland State Senate passed SB 51 requiring motorists to yield right-of-way at intersections when a cyclist is in a designated bike lane or lawfully riding on the shoulder. \u00a0The article on the Baltimore Sun’s website has some colorful comments, getting angry reading them is pointless, consider the source and then hope they lose their license . \u00a0My eternal favs though are anyone who equates riding a bike and legislation for cycling as socialism.<\/p>\n