from Stop the Maryland Unsafe Driver by Driver
This website [https://stopthemud.org ] was created to give Marylanders a place to vent, to discuss, to express their opinions about unsafe driving in our state. It was also created to call attention to the senseless loss of life, the mayhem, and the injury on our highways by referring readers to articles at various news organizations. I hoped that creating a site that highlighted unsafe driving in Maryland that the site would attract readers that would participate and encourage comment and debate.
The site is useful in that it does alert Marylanders to some, but not all, of news stories documenting the carnage on Maryland roads and highways. StoptheMUD wants to encourage readers to create an account (it is free) and join the discussion. Our Mingle interface gives you a “Facebook like” user experience that includes a StoptheMUD.org with your chosen username.
Public awareness of unsafe driving is important. By acknowledging we have a serious problem we can each individually make the effort to change our driving behaviors. The state will not do it for us. We, each and every Marylander must make the choice to drive safely. Hopefully by creating a place where we promote individual responsibility we might notice a difference.
I created this site after my wife was involved in a high speed collision that cold have killed her. Two drivers turned in front of her on the highway. One blew a stop sign making a right turn and another made a left turn in front of her without looking for oncoming traffic. Both drivers admitted as much. She crashed into both cars deploying her driver’s side airbag.
Because it was dusk, the MSP officer cited my spouse for failing to turn on her headlights. The following day we met with our insurance adjuster at the accident scene as dusk came upon us. The other drivers COULD have seen my wife’s car if they had bothered to look, but it was just dark enough that the law was not on our side. The egregious behaviors of the unsafe drivers were not even considered.
We learned a couple of things after that collision. In Maryland, there is no contributing responsibility law. The other is that you cannot trust a police a office to tell the truth in court. The officer that cited my spouse for not having her headlights on claimed he was at the accident scene, at dusk, the day after the crash to determine whether the other drivers should have seen my wife’s car. Well we know he was not there because we were and he wasn’t. My spouse was so shocked when the officer made his claim in court that she was afraid to tell the judge that the officer was not telling the truth.
So you see that if we are going to eliminate dangerous roads we have to count on ourselves to make the behavior changes. We cannot depend on the police.
Please join the discussion at StoptheMUD. Comment on the articles or create your own account and Mingle with us. Let’s deal with a problem that is causing loss of life in our state.
https://stopthemud.org/2011/01/stopthemud-join-with-us-to-end-the-madness/oldId.20110107191557253
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