Victim’s mother, cyclists continue fight for safer roads
by Natalie McGill, Staff Writer – Gazette
Sophie Chan-Wood didn’t know Natasha Pettigrew, but when the avid cyclist heard about a Saturday morning memorial ride honoring the Cheverly woman, she saw an opportunity to ride to Prince George’s County via the Watts Branch Trail from Washington, D.C.
However, it wasn’t until the Rockville woman was hundreds of feet from the site of the Sept. 19, 2010, hit and run that claimed cyclist Pettigrew’s life that the car honking began, a reminder that both motorists and bicycles should be able to share the road.
Chan-Wood was among a group of 20 including Pettigrew’s mother Kenniss Henry that gathered on Largo’s Prince George’s Community Campus for a memorial bike ride in honor of Pettigrew and Henry’s mission to make roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
"Unfortunately the circumstances of why we’re here still bring a lot of pain to me," Henry said to the group before the ride which circled Upper Marlboro’s Watkins Regional Park before returning to campus. "She grew from being my daughter to being my best friend."
Pettigrew, 30, was riding her bike about 5:30 a.m. near the intersection of Campus Way South and Route 202 when driver Christy Littleford of Upper Marlboro struck her from behind with her sport utility vehicle. Pettigrew, a Green Party U.S. Senate candidate who was training for a half-triathlon, died from her injuries on Sept. 20, 2010.
Littleford, who thought she hit a deer according to Maryland State Police, dragged the bicycle underneath her SUV all the way back to her Upper Marlboro home before realizing she had struck Pettigrew instead. The most Littleford could face is a charge for leaving the scene of the accident but Henry said she doesn’t know what penalty she could face. Littleford will not face wrongful death charges because there were no witnesses, Henry said.
Michael Turner of the Mount Rainier Bicycle Co-Op, helped plan the ride, wanting to have it close to the site of the Sept. 19, 2010, incident as a gesture of healing. Henry said Turner reached out to her earlier this year after hearing about Pettigrew’s story.
Henry went to Annapolis two to three times a week during the 2011 Maryland General Assembly session, encouraging legislators to toughen the laws on vehicular manslaughter. Her persistence paid off when elected officials passed Maryland House Bill 363 "Manslaughter by Vehicle or Vessel Criminal Negligence." The bill, which becomes law on Oct. 1, lessens the burden of proof a prosecutor needs to prove a driver was grossly negligent and could guarantee an offender three years in jail, a $5,000 fine or possibly both, Henry said. Previously prosecutors needed to meet a high burden of proof such as intentional gross negligence on the part of the driver, Henry said.
Henry said she encountered push back from legislators who told her she was trying to put mothers and grandmothers in jail who hypothetically could be distracted by children or grandchildren and accidentally strike a pedestrian or cyclist, Henry said.
It’s not an issue if the driver actually stays on the scene, Henry said.
"When you hit someone and you leave and you act as if you had the right to hit them and the right to leave, that’s my issue," Henry said.
Turner said more people would bike rather than drive if major roads such as Routes 202 and 450 had more bike lanes but the perception is you cannot because the roads don’t allow space for bike lanes. Any development scaled to accommodate a wheelchair could likely benefit pedestrians and bicyclists, he said. Turner cited an example of parents of Mount Rainier Elementary School students who drive across Rhode Island Avenue to drop off kids rather than walk because it’s safer.
"Our infrastructure should accommodate the mobility of everyone and our infrastructure doesn’t do that right now," Turner said. "It accommodates the motorist foremost."
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