Hit and Run on US Senate contender.

mybreakfastconsisted

09/21/10 02:02 PM

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — A Green Party candidate running for U.S. Senate in Maryland has died after being hit by an SUV while riding her bike.

Maryland State Police say 30-year-old Natasha Pettigrew died early Tuesday. She was hit by an SUV in Prince George's County early Sunday.

Police say the woman driving the Cadillac Escalade that hit Pettigrew kept driving nearly four miles to her home, even though the bicycle was still lodged underneath the vehicle.

Police say the woman thought she hit a deer or a dog and didn't want to stop in the early morning hours.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/2 ... 33533.html

crankycrank

The irony is deafening here. A brain dead driver in the largest, gas sucking SUV in production, kills an environmental advocate while riding her bike (rather than driving) and the driver doesn't even realise she has just run over another human. Sad and pathetic. Hopefully this will bring attention to some of the dangers of driving while comatose in the US and Natasha Pettigrew not be forgotten. Very sad.

deptfordmarmoset

crankycrank, are you actually suggesting that drivers should be paying enough attention to see what kind of things they run over? Isn't that communist talk?

Yes, it's a tragic, wasteful death and I hope the irony is not lost so that Natasha Pettigrew's death helps others to live. Because that's only way I can imagine her death having meaning.

PBo

deptfordmarmoset wrote:

crankycrank, are you actually suggesting that drivers should be paying enough attention to see what kind of things they run over? Isn't that communist talk?

Yes, it's a tragic, wasteful death and I hope the irony is not lost so that Natasha Pettigrew's death helps others to live. Because that's only way I can imagine her death having meaning.

I've reported him to Homeland Security for being un-American.......

mybreakfastconsisted

http://www.thewashcycle.com/2010/09/pet ... anned.html


Some thoughts from afar.

We are told not to pre-judge the matter as the investigation will take weeks if not months to complete.

Yet within hours of Ms. Petttigrew's death the police are on camera stating that the driver, who has stuck and left a cyclist to die by the side of the road, violated no laws.

The police also inform the media that that the cyclist wasn't wearing any reflective clothing. But then we see that the victim's own mother finds such clothing left behind at the scene. We also learn of evidence of smashed reflectors strewn about.

It is inconceivable to me that someone apparently into cycling as much Ms Pettigrew was, preparing for a triathlon, training in the early morning hours, would not have the proper lighting etc. on her bike.

The police spokesman says the driver reported finding the bike stuck to the front of heir car "immediately" upon arriving home. The Post puts the call at an hour later. Fox News quotes police sources as it being 4 hours later. Is somebody trying to shade the the truth here?

The driver is said to live 3 miles from the scene. Even with the semi-demolished state of her truck she should have arrived home well under an hour. Say 15 minutes.

I noticed in the videos that the truck was backed into the garage. Curious 'cause I'd say 9/10 people pull into garages.

Someone pointed out that the principal damage to the truck was on the left front. Directly in front of where the driver sits. Another poster here said he visited the scene and describes the roadway as having a wide shoulder. The videos of the scene suggest to me that Ms Pettigrew was struck while on that shoulder.

Isn't it possible the truck left the travel lanes? I know - the police have already said the driver violated no laws and we shouldn't speculate any further.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Number9 now posting as mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

<an article and someone else's opinion copied and pasted from the Internet>

When you copied and pasted the article in your first post, you omitted this sentence from the end of the article.

When she and her husband found the bicycle under the SUV, they called police.

Any particular reason why?

Zachariah

As distressing as this case sounds for all concerned, best not to speculate until it is decided.

mybreakfastconsisted

The police spokesman says the driver reported finding the bike stuck to the front of heir car "immediately" upon arriving home. (5.30 am)

The Post puts the call at an hour later. (6.30 am)

Fox News quotes police sources as it being 4 hours later.


The cops release a statement saying Natasha wasn't wearing reflective gear, a news crew goes back and finds her reflective gear.

No guessing, just confused by the police reaction.


http://www.tbd.com/articles/2010/09/gre ... 12745.html

Pettigrew's mother Kenniss Henry says she is struggling to balance her emotions, but she has one thing she'd like to say to the driver who struck and critically injured her daughter.



"Could you at least stop, hold her, call 911, talk to her, say it's gonna be all right?"

asked Henry.

Headhuunter

Some of the SUV things they drive out there are shocking. They're so large that it doesn't surprise me that she didn't notice that she'd hit a cyclist. They're like full size Hummers and make Land Rovers look like little runabouts. And it's not just as if one or 2 people drive them, EVERYONE does when I was out in Houston I saw quite a few 5 foot little grannies in them, barely able to see over the steering wheel of these enormous monster truck things. Must be scary cycling over there.

EKE_38BPM

Over here if a car hits a ped head-on the peds legs get taken out and they would end up going over the bonnet and into the windscreen.
If one of those ridiculously big SUVs hits a ped, the SUV will take the ped out at (my) chest height and go straight through you. I'm over 6 foot and the bonnet of those things was at about my chin height.
I would imagine that those massive SUVs have the same sort of visibility problems that we associate with HGVs over here.

Vehicles of this size are commonplace in Yankland. Imagine if 50% of the cars on the roads of Blighty was replaced with Transit vans and you get the idea.
The standard of driving is also much lower over there, but they do drive much slower and generally the roads are wider, so its a bit swings and roundabouts. When I was in Florida, I cycled on the pavements, something I never do over here.

Many states don't have an equivalent of an MOT so some of the cars are in a shocking condition. Belching thick smoke. No tread on the tyres. No idea what the brakes would be like, but chances are if you have bald tyres checking the condition of your brakes takes an equally low priority.
My brother lives in Florida and he says every time it rains there is a rash of car crashes caused by people just sliding into each other due to lack of grip.

Headhuunter

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Over here if a car hits a ped head-on the peds legs get taken out and they would end up going over the bonnet and into the windscreen.
If one of those ridiculously big SUVs hits a ped, the SUV will take the ped out at (my) chest height and go straight through you. I'm over 6 foot and the bonnet of those things was at about my chin height.
I would imagine that those massive SUVs have the same sort of visibility problems that we associate with HGVs over here.

Vehicles of this size are commonplace in Yankland. Imagine if 50% of the cars on the roads of Blighty was replaced with Transit vans and you get the idea.
The standard of driving is also much lower over there, but they do drive much slower and generally the roads are wider, so its a bit swings and roundabouts. When I was in Florida, I cycled on the pavements, something I never do over here.

Many states don't have an equivalent of an MOT so some of the cars are in a shocking condition. Belching thick smoke. No tread on the tyres. No idea what the brakes would be like, but chances are if you have bald tyres checking the condition of your brakes takes an equally low priority.
My brother lives in Florida and he says every time it rains there is a rash of car crashes caused by people just sliding into each other due to lack of grip.

A friend of mine took his driving test in the US and all it involved was driving round a few streets with a police officer in the passenger seat. He may have done an emergency stop or something but he said that there was no 3 point turn, no parallel parking, no theory test, just a quick drive with a local officer and bang, he had a licence. The guy is from Ireland and he had failed in Ireland 2 or 3 times, however apparently in Ireland just about everyone drives around on provisional licences anyway and doesn't bother taking the test and then every now and then the government has an amnesty and just swaps everyone's provisional licences for proper ones to clear the backlog.

At 1 point my mate was living and working in Antwerp in Belgium and somehow (don't ask me how) he had a company car when he was working out there. He decided to book a driving test back in Ireland after a few months of driving round on his Irish provisional licence. When his appointment came he DROVE from Belgium to Ireland, across the UK...... And then failed the test and drove back....

Mike Healey

See 2 further pieces:
http://www.tflcar.com/2010/09/hit-and-r ... ident.html

http://link.brightcove.com/services/pla ... 4725200001

The first is a pro-car site strongly criticising the teroble tratment of cyclists by the legal process, prompted by this story. the second is an interview with a witness to the fact that the CUV was being driven slowly with psarks and smoke coming from underneath. The driver also stopped