Posted on 09/01/2024 10:04:47 AM PDT by xxqqzz
As a young E7 having my incoming briefing with my new Battalion Commander in 1985 at Ft Lewis, WA he wrapped up our meeting with “If you get a DWI take the next day off to work on your civilian resume.”
2. Vehicle A approaches them from the rear, traveling in the same direction.
3. Under New Jersey law (NJSA 39:4-92.4), The operator of Vehicle A must do one or both of the following:
- move far enough to the left to provide 4 feet of lateral clearance between the vehicle and the cyclists
- if this cannot be done safely due to oncoming traffic or other roadway conditions, slow down to a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour until the cyclists can be safely passed
4. Vehicle B -- driven by the Defendant -- approaches Vehicle A from behind at a high rate of speed.
5. Concurrently with Item #4, Vehicle A moves several feet to the left to pass the cyclists, partially occupying the opposing traffic lane.
6. Defendant, as later reported by himself to the police, believes the operator of Vehicle A is deliberately moving halfway across the road to prevent Vehicle B from passing Vehicle A.
7. The operator of Vehicle B accelerates quickly and moves to the right edge of the pavement to pass Vehicle A.
8. As this reckless and illegal passing maneuver takes place, Vehicle B strikes the two cyclists.
9. Both cyclists are declared deceased on the scene, so you can imagine how horrific the wreckage on the scene must have been.
What I've described here is the description of the incident as reported to the police in the Defendant's statement. He was lucid enough to know exactly what he was doing when he passed Vehicle A on the right side.
Come on! He PASSED A CAR ON THE RIGHT AND DIDN’T KNOW WHY THE CAR WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD and why they were going slow? TOTALLY STUPID!
You Walk against traffic....you RIDE WITH TRAFFIC!
FWIW, this was not a “highway”.
I live in central PA and for about 6 years I worked at a company in northern Lancaster County; not in the touristy “Amish” tourist trap places found along business Rt. 30 just north of city of Lancaster, but among the real Amish with real working farms – lots of horse drawn buggies, sometimes horse drawn tractors moving between fields on the other side of the road, women and teens on foot-powered scooters, and even slow moving gas-powered farm tractors, because not all the farms are Amish.
A lot of my commute was on 2-lane roads, and you had to watch out for these slower moving vehicles. I remember being about 20 minutes late for work one morning and told my boss I was in a traffic jam. She laughed and asked, “Stuck behind a buggy or a farm tractor?” “Both”, I said. I actually got stuck behind a buggy, safely passed it, then got stuck behind a farm tractor and eventually passed that, then a short while later behind another buggy. Still better than being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Baltimore or Capital Beltway or I-95 as I’d been there and done that.
You had to slow down and wait for a good time to pass with plenty of sightlines ahead, not on a hill or on a curve to be sure to not to run into an oncoming car and not overtaking any car that hadn’t tried to pass yet. And if you got behind a slow-moving motor vehicle, but couldn’t see around it, you had to assume they had slowed down for a buggy or a tractor, even if you couldn’t see it. The very last thing you’d want to do is pass on the right.
But it seems like at least once every few months around here, a motor vehicle overtakes a buggy on these rural roads because the driver of the motor vehicle was not paying attention to the road in front of them or was drunk driving or texting while driving. Sure, once in a blue Moon the fault is with the Amish buggy driver - just in the last few weeks, one ran a stop sign and the driver of the motor vehicle tried to avoid them but couldn’t, and IIRC, there was an incident last year with an Amish teen driving a buggy while drunk. But that’s more the exception.
One of the roads I often took to work was designated a “scenic route”. It didn’t have a bike lane but was popular with many biking clubs and I could understand why – beautiful scenery. Often with a big biking club event, there was a vehicle behind the bikers with flashers on and a sign indicating that there were bicyclists ahead but sometimes, rather often, I’d come across a few solo cyclists, mostly on a Friday afternoon.
And you know what? My life wasn’t impacted at all by patiently waiting, waiting for what? a minute or two, maybe three, for a good time to safely cross the center line after seeing no on-coming vehicles and giving the cyclists a wide berth when passing them and then going on my merry way and letting them go on their merry way?
FWIW, I’d rather share the road with some bicyclists than some of these young “bros” who think the size of their pickup truck or SUV makes up for their shortcomings in other areas. And don’t get me started on the “rolling coal” bros and how one of them almost killed me on dark country road one night.
But let me tell you another thing I experienced on my way to work one morning.
I was traveling north up Rt. 441 (Chickies Hill Road) on my way to work around 7:15 AM when I came up on a large, late model, very expensive looking pick-up truck in front of me.
But I noticed the driver of the pickup was slowing down, sometimes nearly stopping, then speeding up again, then crossing the double yellow line into on-coming traffic, then swerving to the other side and almost running off the road, then speeding up again then nearly coming to a stop again and this happened several times over a very short distance.
At one point the truck came to a near stop and I pulled up beside them, blew my horn and rolled down my window and asked if they were OK, “who knows” I thought, maybe this is someone having a medical emergency.
No. The 20 something looking gal, who I was close enough to see her blood shot eyes, rolled down her window, gave me the finger and called me a “biotch” then sped off again.
The thing that scared me the most was about ¼ mile up the road was a school bus stop where I knew there’d be a least 2 dozen kids waiting for their bus.
I don’t like to use my cell phone while driving but I called 9-11 and told the dispatcher where I was and what I was seeing and gave them the license plate #, a description of the vehicle and the driver and I followed her with my flashers on, blowing my horn to hopefully warn other drivers and following at what I hoped was at a safe enough distance.
She swerved off the road and into a ditch but only about 1k yards from the school buss stop. The cops where there in seconds and I gave then my statement but never heard anything about it.
I have no sympathy or give any excuse to drunk or drug impaired drivers or people who kill others while texting and driving.
And people who try to defend them are IMO, just as bad.
“Bicycles are considered vehicles and should be treated as such.”
If that’s the case, why are the spandex wearing road nazis not required to have a license to operate said “vehicles”? Why are they not required to register and insure said “vehicles”?
A vast majority of these road nazis believe that since they’re not operating a MOTOR VEHICLE that the rules of the road do not apply to them.
Shut up faggit
“Your way of thinking gets people killed.”
No, riding a bike after dusk on a highway gets people killed.
“If the two were on motorcycles, they would likely also have been killed.”
Motorcycles wouldn’t be on the edge line, going 15 miles an hour.
And people who try to defend them are IMO, just as bad.
Oh bite me bubble wrap girl. It was an accident that was **just as likely** had he not been a couple of beers in.
And people who try to defend them are IMO, just as bad.
Oh bite me bubble wrap girl. It was an accident that was **just as likely** had he not been a couple of beers in.
“Bicycles are considered vehicles and should be treated as such.”
That is a right. I have a right to walk through Kensington in Philly tonight and count my money at an ATM.
It’s called being “dead right”.
You take your life into your hands when you bike on NJ roads.
They driv like maniacs at all hours of the day and night.
Yes, as a commissioned officer, he'll get a dismissal, which is the military equivalent of a felony conviction. He'll lose all veterans benefits and any pension he might've qualified for (I'm not sure how pensions work in the Nat'l Guard but Active Duty service offers a lifetime pension after 20 years).
If he has any family, they're SOL as well. They'll lose all of their dependent benefits.
Oh, and he's going to do hard time in either a military brig or a civilian prison, and possibly both.
Helluva way to end a career.
Moron.
You come up on a car driving slowly and half in the opposite lane. Dogs ahead? Amish? Drunk people? Your choice is to drive at 70 MPH and pass on the right. You deserve to spend the rest of your life in prison for being so stupid with your choices.
at some point you can assume some reference to his service as a 2 weeker natty-G status will be explained how it affects this wreck, or his driving.
Moron. Law says they do not have to be registered. People like you get other people killed. Go vote for Harris.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.