Thursday, September 07, 2006
71-year-old man won't be charged in crash that killed TL carrier
One question after reading the Ed Lewis report: We know what the dead carrier was doing with his van parked on the side of the road with its flashers blinking - delivering newspapers. What was the old guy doing driving around Kingston in the rain at 5 a.m. Sunday?
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7 comments:
Good point. And which Kingston official is he buddies with? Do blood-alcohol test? Anyone under the age of 30 would have surely been arrested in this case.
NEPA said: What was the old guy doing driving around Kingston in the rain at 5 a.m. Sunday?
Unless proven otherwise, he was out legally. I used to toss questions like that to my news writing class at the college. They all fell for the bait. He may be an "early to bed, early to rise" who was on his way to a Turkey Hill, then to church to set up for the early Mass.
My question is more about what the carrier's vehicle was doing in that spot. If it was a "No Parking" zone, those signs were there for a reason. I don't know the location, but could there have been a bend in the road that we can't see around? It's possible that even with his 4-ways on, parking in that one spot would be very dangerous and, this time, the dice came up wrong. In rainy weather, any one of us might have been the perp, so to speak.
I attended the wake last night, as I am friends of the family, but did not want to ask any questions. They may not have known themselves.
Tom, as an experienced daily and weekly newspaper carrier through my senior year in high school, I can testify that your work inevitably requires illegal parking in the wee hours with your flashers on. The trend of motor routes only has accelerated since my time tossing papers. Get up at 4 tomorrow morning and watch for your carrier(s). Odds are they'll be in a car, pulling up in front of your house and doing a few subscribers at a time.
I'm not trying to crucify the elderly driver. But it's a legitimate news question, one that every reader wondered: What was the guy doing driving in the rain at 5 a.m. Sunday? He certainly is entitled to drive when and where he sees fit, but that doesn't reduce the newsworthiness of what he was doing.
A final note: Someone should do a story on the plight of motor carriers. A Voice carrier was killed in early 2004 in similar circumstances. Your friendly newspaper carrier has shifted over the years from a kid earning money in his first job to an adult tossing papers as his second or third job to make ends meet.
NEPA said: Get up at 4 tomorrow morning and watch for your carrier(s). Odds are they'll be in a car, pulling up in front of your house and doing a few subscribers at a time.
I agree; I'm over at the CV every morning anywhere between 1:00 and 2:00 or later when the guys and gals are loading their cars to do their routes, fair weather or foul.
But it's a legitimate news question, one that every reader wondered: What was the guy doing driving in the rain at 5 a.m. Sunday?
Still disagree. Question is, why didn't he see the TL carrier's vehicle? I know carriers have to park in odd places, but did the carrier put himself in danger? Or was gramps friends with the cops? Why gramps was on the road at 5:00am in rainy weather is irrelevant.
Someone should do a story on the plight of motor carriers. A Voice carrier was killed in early 2004 in similar circumstances. Your friendly newspaper carrier has shifted over the years from a kid earning money in his first job to an adult tossing papers as his second or third job to make ends meet.
Excellent idea for a story. btw: The CV guy was changing a tire, either on a curve or just beyond it. He had little choice of venue, but it was an accident waiting to happen. I think there was another accident over the winter with a carrier on a hilly road. It's a rough job, not at all when you and I were riding our bikes on our routes.
Strange that you question the driver, insinuate wrongdoing and claim he would have been arrested if under 30. Are you for real? Why was the driver out at 5 am on a Sunday morning on a rain-slicked road? What an odd question! There are lots of people awake and out of the house at 5 am every day around here! Are you aware of the exact location where the poor delivery guy was parked? At Church and Wyoming Ave in Kingston? Do you understand how the road is set up there? It would be HIGHLY unusual for any vehicle to be stopped there with flashers blinking. That is where the Cross Valley expressway exit and entrance are. Also, there are only three buildings there that would have no need for newspapers, and there are no boxes nearby.
2:51 p.m., you're responding to the first commenter as well as subsequent commenters. It's impossible to say whether a younger person would have been charged, of course.
I still believe what the driver was doing on the road at 5 a.m. on a rainy Sunday is a legitimate line of inquiry. If my 71-year-old father struck and killed someone under similar circumstances, my first question would be what he was doing on the road at that hour. It's a question that readers are asking too.
Again, I'm not looking to take a shot at the driver. Maybe he's going to church. Maybe he was going to meet his regular coffeeklatch. I have no idea. But the circumstances -- time of day, day of week, weather, and age -- make the question legitimate.
2:51, you write that "There are lots of people awake and out of the house at 5 am every day around here!" Are you kidding? It's an area dominated by retirees and government employees. Sure, there are a few people on the road, the people you'd expect (even on a Sunday morning): Hospital workers, drivers, cops and firefighers coming on or off shift, newspaper carriers, etc. But I think you could safely call that intersection "nearly deserted" at that hour.
Both papers have been short on the geography of the accident: where exactly the van was, which way the driver was headed, etc. It's hard to say what's hazardous and what isn't. A final note: Parking is variously permitted and prohibited, depending on where you are, on that stretch of Wyoming Avenue. It's a dangerous stretch for people who are parked there and for drivers passing them, especially 71-year-old drivers in the rain and the dark.
I do not know which readers you are talking to, but the readers I talk to -- those familiar with the intersection -- feel the 71-year-old driver is getting judged as it is. And these same readers do not need as much info as you seem to think. We certainly did not need to know the exact gruesome details about how the coroner determined he died. There IS such a thing as TMI in journalism.
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