{"id":128697861,"date":"2009-01-29T13:24:21","date_gmt":"2009-01-29T13:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=128697861"},"modified":"2009-01-29T13:24:21","modified_gmt":"2009-01-29T13:24:21","slug":"law-enforcement-officials-urge-passage-of-negligent-driving-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=128697861","title":{"rendered":"Law enforcement officials urge passage of negligent driving bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>STEVE LASH &#8211; Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer &#8211; January 28, 2009 6:12 PM<br \/>\nANNAPOLIS \u2014 Law-enforcement officials urged Maryland legislators to close a \u201cgaping hole\u201d in state law that allows some drivers to escape with only a traffic citation after causing a fatal collision.<br \/>\nTestifying Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, Montgomery County Police Cpl. Greg Lewis voiced frustration that all too often his only recourse is to issue traffic citations to a driver whose extreme carelessness took another person\u2019s life.<br \/>\n\u201cI prosecuted them to the fullest extent of the law,\u201d Lewis told the committee. \u201cI wrote them [traffic] tickets.\u201d<br \/>\nMaryland law treats vehicular manslaughter \u2014 a wanton or reckless disregard for human life \u2014 as a felony, while any motorist offense short of that, absent alcohol or drugs, is regarded as a traffic violation.<br \/>\nLewis testified in support of House Bill 97, which would close what he called \u201cthat big gaping hole\u201d between felony and traffic violation by making it a misdemeanor when a driver kills someone through a \u201csubstantial deviation from the standard of care \u2026 exercised by a reasonable\u201d motorist.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mddailyrecord.com\/article.cfm?id=10618&amp;type=UTTM\">https:\/\/www.mddailyrecord.com\/article.cfm?id=10618&amp;type=UTTM<\/a>oldId.20090129132421466<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STEVE LASH &#8211; Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer &#8211; January 28, 2009 6:12 PM ANNAPOLIS \u2014 Law-enforcement officials urged Maryland legislators to close a \u201cgaping hole\u201d in state law that allows some drivers to escape with only a traffic citation after causing a fatal collision. Testifying Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, Montgomery County Police &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=128697861\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Law enforcement officials urge passage of negligent driving bill&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128697861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-in-maryland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128697861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128697861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128697861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128697861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128697861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128697861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}