Posted on 05/16/2005 9:04:09 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) - A well-known volunteer police officer who directs traffic at a busy Georgetown intersection was fighting for his life Saturday after he was struck my a sport-utility vehicle and rushed to George Washington University Hospital in critical condition, a District of Columbia police spokesman said.
Joseph Pozell, 59, was seriously injured just after 3:30 p.m. when he was directing traffic at the intersection of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Sgt. Joe Gentile said. A 19-year-old woman driving a Honda CR-V ran into him while making a left turn onto M Street, Gentile said.
Pozell, a native of Moundsville, W.Va., is a familiar face at the intersection and in the Georgetown community. He has volunteered on many weeknights for nearly 18 months to help ease congestion during rush hours, and local groups recently honored him as a model citizen. Gentile said Pozell is a three-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department's reserve officer corps.
During the day, Pozell manages the Oak Hill Cemetery and lives on the property with his wife, Ella. Pozell also has an adult son.
Michael Palermo, manager of the Papa-Razzi restaurant and bar told The Washington Post that he saw the accident Saturday.
"I saw fear in his eyes," Palermo said. "The woman hit him head-on.... I don't know how she missed seeing him.
"He was standing in the middle of the street."
After the accident many blocks on M Street were cordoned off with yellow police tape, and vehicles were directed to K Street, which was gridlocked.
How many people die every year in vehicle accidents? 50,000? No offense, this is a trajedy, but this not news at all. It has no belonging in any newspaper clipping beyond maybe a blurb for an obituary in the local paper if the officer dies. There has to be some alterior motive for the publishment of this instance, i just cant put my finger on what it is...
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not news at all. hmm. OK. If you say so.
Enlightening comment. I have no idea what your trying to put forth with this.
This scenario happens multiple times per day. Should we have a discussion of this each and every time?
If she had been driving a minivan this wouldn't have happened. <:/>
This scenario happens multiple times per day. Should we have a discussion of this each and every time?
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"This scenario"? Oh, I would beg to differ. and many such incidents do get discussed daily like this, if you don't like it, move on.
You seem to say it is a waste of time reporting anything that happens just because it happens daily or just don't get the thing that the media has with SUVs as a whole.
I guess we should just quit covering any crime as well, because it happens everyday following your logic.
Poor guy.
I guess no good deed goes unpunished by some stupid, careless driver.
Just out of curiousity, why does a Bakersfield, CA paper pickup an AP story about a guy getting hit by a car in Washington, D.C.?
I pull ap articles off rags that run the AP news wire items locally, predominantly using rags here in california as I live in CA.
This paper's web site happens to be one of the better faster loading rags around as well, imo. :-)
If you stuff the title of this article in a search engine, you will find many many others to also use as sourcing.
sometimes I use them , but Im a creature of habit to this point. Also I don't have an EXCERPT only issue here as with some rags.
But AP may change that someday too.
'Til party and post on,, ;-)
Well, ya, I agree it's a good thing in that regard, but what local interest does it have for the folks on Bakersfield or BF, Illinois?
I guess I don't understand why they are wasting space on a story that only has interest to someone outside of D.C. if they keep track of killer SUV stories.
I don;t know if this will help.. but,
Decent News site have all kinds of information from all over, most of which probably doesn't get many hits or seems that relevant to a local area.
But nonetheless, it's easier to build in all the features up front than have to re-engineer a site later as it grows or pass folks off to other sites.
Spacewise, they aren't really burning up much of any space from a web page content standpoint as the pages get built on the fly anyway as users click thru links.
It's all automated anyway so stuff updates as things happen around the globe.
It's what makes traditional newspapers pretty much dinosaurs on their last legs.
Ok here it goes. My original post strongly implied that the media was reporting this soley on the basis of the "killer SUV" angle, and that car accidents happen all the time and this is the only reason it is being reported.
Understand now?
Your initial post was a little loose on the implied anything side of things , imo. Just spit out what ya think, it makes it easier for everyone to figure what ya meant.
If ya'd been around here awhile , you'd know most folks already know that.
Why do ya think I posted it originally, knowing Rush and the media's fascination with SUVs with minds of their own..
Ironically, the fact that a well respected traffic officer got run over is a minor detail or so said you earlier.
Geesh! ;-)
I find that very ignorant of you to assume that just because it was a 19 year old TEENAGE GIRL from NORTHERN VIRGINIA that she was "gabbing away on her cell phone" because in fact Ms. Matthews was not at fault at all, and clearly NOT on her cell phone; and when taken to the U.S. Attorney's Office, they refused to press charges. In fact, it turns out it was the officers own fault for stepping backwards into traffic, right into the line of the SUV. I guarantee you that if it had been a 40 year old woman with 4 children in a Honda civic, you wouldn't be saying the same ignorant statements directing the blame on some spoiled-suv driving-teenage girl from the wealthy suburbs. Focus on what is truly important, that this was a tragic accident.
Also... I find it funny that Palmero saw "fear in his eyes" when at the time of the accident, the officer was wearing sunglasses.
"... No mention is made of race/ethnicity/national origin/gender confusion/ weight-to-height ratio/ marital-partnering status, etc. All we know is her age?
C'mon FReepers, make your best profiling guess. In the absence of any facts, conjecture about the nature of this woman. ;-)"
I find it very insulting that you are attempting to stereotype the woman who hit this police officer, when regardless of race, ethnicity, etc. it could have been anyone at that intersection that moment that the Officer stepped backwards into her line of driving. Let us remember, this was NOT her fault.
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