Like I have said before, memorial to the dead belong in cemeteries not on the side of the road.

by Sand Box John on Dec 1, 2009 9:11 am  

For members of Congress with cars, I can't say that's surprising. Even those without officially leased cars for business will have their staffers drive them around to various meetings and whatnot. I've had friends who've done that, gotten a bunch of parking tickets, etc. at a Senator/Representative's behest.

by Alex B. on Dec 1, 2009 9:26 am  

That's funny. I just saw Jim Leher hop off the Acela in Connecticut on Thanksgiving. The guy likes his mass transit!

by TM on Dec 1, 2009 9:50 am  

When are they going to start teaching roundabouts in driver's ed and have it on license tests?

by JTS on Dec 1, 2009 10:12 am  

The roundabouts at US50 and 15 are a bit weird in the sense that they're rather small. In both cases the speed limits drops to 25 mph and goes back up after the roundabout. Seems kinda besides the point. Both also don't have any facilities for pedestrians or bikers. But then again, they are kinda in the middle of nowhere. And they do speed up traffic.

Lastly, can anybody explain to me what is confusing about a roundabout?

BTW: It's interestig that the VDOT brochure points out that you have to yield to pedestrians and bikers, but does not give the obvious reason: They are on the roundabout too!

http://www.virginiadot.org/info/resources/Roundabouts.pdf

by Jasper on Dec 1, 2009 10:53 am  

OK, Where can I get a brown "Metro Transit" cardigan?

by thm on Dec 1, 2009 11:06 am  

The Wapo blurb says the 74-year-old woman was stopping at the spot her *grand* daughter was killed. That's really rough to lose your daughter and your mother at the same place within a week.

by James M on Dec 1, 2009 12:02 pm  

Lehrer's family owns a small bus service in Texas, which he has written about in his memoirs and (I think) in a few novels as well.

by JB on Dec 1, 2009 12:17 pm  

Message to Congresspeople: if John McCain can walk, none of you have any excuse.

by Matthias on Dec 1, 2009 12:55 pm  

the DC and Metro police need to step up to the plate and stop the wreckless kids who get out of school and endanger everyone and themselves. This problem has been ignored for far too long.

by w on Dec 1, 2009 2:13 pm  

At least VDOT call them by their proper name. Roundabout, not "rotary" or (blech) "traffic circle."

by Paul on Dec 1, 2009 3:38 pm  

Many on this site argue the semantics of drivers hitting and killing people instead of cars doing so.

But you say "Car crashes killed 30..." How does a car crash kill someone? Shouldn't it be "drivers killed 30 in car crashes"?

by mch on Dec 1, 2009 7:27 pm  

mch: You're right that that would be better, though some of them might have been drunk drivers killing themselves, so maybe it should be "drivers killed 30, sometimes themselves and sometimes others, in car crashes." However, I chose brevity.

I object less to "crash kills teen" than "car crosses road and hits pedestrian." It's particularly a problem when the wording goes to great lengths to make it seem as though the vehicle were self-propelled to avoid giving the driver any agency. If press reports sometimes said it one way and sometimes another, that wouldn't be such a big deal, but it's particularly widespread.

by David Alpert on Dec 1, 2009 10:31 pm  

"And a drunk Howard County teen killed his friend after veering off the road Sunday morning. (Post) ..."

hmmm ... I just linked to the story, and no, the teen didn't kill his friend ... the friend died as a result of an automobile accident. 'killing' requires intent ... unless the driver purposely drove the car off the road intending the kill the friend, this is an accident ...

FROM www.m-w.com

Main Entry: ac·ci·dent
Pronunciation: \ˈak-sə-dənt, -ˌdent; ˈaks-dənt\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin accident-, accidens nonessential quality, chance, from present participle of accidere to happen, from ad- + cadere to fall — more at chance
Date: 14th century
1 a : an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance b : lack of intention or necessity : chance
2 a : an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance b : an unexpected and medically important bodily event especially when injurious c : an unexpected happening causing loss or injury which is not due to any fault or misconduct on the part of the person injured but for which legal relief may be sought d —used euphemistically to refer to an involuntary act or instance of urination or defecation
3 : a nonessential property or quality of an entity or circumstance

by Lance on Dec 1, 2009 11:13 pm  

The teen drove drunk. That carries a high likelihood of ending in disaster. How is that "an unforeseen event" or "not due to any fault or misconduct"? If there's one driver behavior the law does strongly punish, it's drunk driving. The driver is likely going to face serious, serious charges, and misconduct? Plenty.

Plus, where does the definition of "kill" require intent? From m-w.com:

Main Entry: 1kill
Pronunciation: \ˈkil\
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, perhaps from Old English *cyllan; akin to Old English cwellan to kill — more at quell
Date: 14th century

transitive verb 1 a : to deprive of life : cause the death of b (1) : to slaughter (as a hog) for food (2) : to convert a food animal into (a kind of meat) by slaughtering
2 a : to put an end to b : defeat, veto c : to mark for omission; also : delete d : annihilate, destroy
3 a : to destroy the vital or essential quality of b : to cause to stop c : to check the flow of current through
4 : to make a markedly favorable impression on
5 : to get through uneventfully ; also : to get through (the time of a penalty) without being scored on
6 a : to cause extreme pain to b : to tire almost to the point of collapse
7 : to hit (a shot) so hard in various games that a return is impossible
8 : to consume (as a drink) totallyintransitive verb 1 : to deprive one of life
2 : to make a markedly favorable impression
synonyms kill, slay, murder, assassinate, dispatch, execute mean to deprive of life. KILL merely states the fact of death caused by an agency in any manner . SLAY is a chiefly literary term implying deliberateness and violence but not necessarily motive . MURDER specifically implies stealth and motive and premeditation and therefore full moral responsibility . ASSASSINATE applies to deliberate killing openly or secretly often for political motives . DISPATCH stresses quickness and directness in putting to death . EXECUTE stresses putting to death as a legal penalty .

At the end, it specifically says, "KILL merely states the fact of death caused by an agency in any manner ." It distinguishes KILL from words that DO imply intent or deliberativeness, such as SLAY or MURDER.

by David Alpert on Dec 1, 2009 11:33 pm  

to me it's never made any sense to use a traffic light when you can get away with a roundabout. clearly it's better to have cars yield only when necessary in all directions at the same time, rather than have half of them stopped at any given time. Traffic lights just induce speeding and unecessary delays. Slow and steady is a lot safer that stop-and-go induced speeding.

If you understand what a yield sign means, then you understand roundabouts. What's so confusing about yielding?

by Lee Watkins on Dec 2, 2009 7:22 am  

WHile we're on the subject of misquoted press releases, Metro's press release on the altercation at Gallery Place says the teen was pushed to the platform, not the tracks. Perhaps that has been changed since the item was added here. And it certainly seems odd that you'd hold a train for 45 minutes just because someone was pushed into it. Are Metro rail cars that fragile? Was there blood on the car that needed to be cleaned? Was it a crime scene? If so, what was the crime? Worth delaying and inconveniencing thousands of people?

by Josh S on Dec 2, 2009 9:13 am  

"The teen drove drunk. That carries a high likelihood of ending in disaster. How is that "an unforeseen event" or "not due to any fault or misconduct"?"

see number 2, especially 2b and 2c

2 a : an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance b : an unexpected and medically important bodily event especially when injurious c : an unexpected happening causing loss or injury which is not due to any fault or misconduct on the part of the person injured but for which legal relief may be sought

by Lance on Dec 2, 2009 10:43 am  

"KILL merely states the fact of death caused by an agency in any manner ."

David, I'll give you that one since the dictionary says so. But common sense tells me that we don't indiscriminately throw 'kill' around in this manner. I mean, if a doctor pulls the plug on an individual, do we say 'the doctor killed grandma'? If a woman aborts her child, do we say she killed the baby? While 'technically' we might be able to use the word 'kill' indiscriminately, I don't think most people do so.

by Lance on Dec 2, 2009 10:56 am  

Lance and David, you're missing one main fact that ends up making the discussion even more vitriolic: the driver was not the teen. The driver was the 22yo brother of the teen. So, at the very least, the person who was drunk driving was not also illegally intoxicated. This fact also makes your argument moot because the teen didn't do the killing or whatever you want to call it.

by Erik W on Dec 7, 2009 12:01 pm