Traffic

it’s illegal because it’s stupidly dangerous.

Baltimore Sun, January 22, 2013:

The incident occurred at about 6:25 a.m., when the sheriff’s deputy saw a Dodge Ram 1500 traveling at a high rate of speed in the Finksburg area.

The deputy tried to pull the car over, but the motorist failed to stop and continued at a high rate of speed onto Old Gamber Road, then turned right onto Old Westminster Pike, according to the sheriff’s office.

The car turned into the Jiffy Mart then continued, without yielding, onto Route 140, where it struck a Ford van that had been traveling eastbound, the sheriff’s report said.

Context. I used to live within a long walk of that Jiffy Mart and know those roads well (my parents still live in Finksburg). Route 91 is Gamber Road and Route 140 is Westminster Pike, also called Baltimore Boulevard, which dumps into I-795 a few miles southeast of the accident. Each of those roads has a roughly parallel narrow and old “Old Gamber Road” and “Old Westminster Pike” which meet in a semi-residential stop sign intersection about 1/8 mile S of the intersection of 91 and 140, which is a major thoroughfare intersection (and a somewhat dangerous one.)

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Where the young, and now dead, 29-year old reportedly entered 140 was at the mouth of the Jiffy Mart, which sits between high-traffic 140 and sleepy, essentially access road Old Westminster Pike. In darting from Old Westminster Pike onto Westminster Pike across the lot of the Jiffy Mart, the motorist apparently entered headlong into a very high traffic road with near-Interstate volumes headed southeast to Baltimore, Towson, Pikesville, I-795, etc. It may be the heaviest rush-hour traffic density corridor road in the Baltimore metro area not served by any public transit whatsoever, though the NW end of the Baltimore Metro is 9-10 miles down 140 and I-795.  Entering southeast onto 140 at a high rate of speed at an hour before sunrise in winter after a major federal holiday as reported to evade a law enforcement agent would be rather dangerous and, in this case, was apparently fatally so.

Thinking that you can outrace a police vehicle successfully is an extreme example of maurylogic and, if events were as reported, a fatal example.  Very sad to hear and am glad that the other motorist wasn’t injured more severely.  Please, if you get pursued by the police in Maryland, don’t play OJ or Bo and Luke Duke: pull over in a safe and orderly manner, stay calm and if necessary contact your attorney.

There are certain circumstances where getting a probation before judgment will not help a motorist that much in Maryland’s traffic court.

When the charge is an alcohol charge, insurance carriers can see any administrative alcohol license suspension even if the ultimate jailable offenses of driving while impaired/driving under the influence do not result in convictions or even in guilty findings.

When motorists have a commercial driver’s license, certain violations get reported to the federal government as “major infractions” even if a Maryland court grants probation before judgment.  Most notably among them is a finding of a specific speed more than 15 miles an hour over the speed limit while driving a commercial vehicle.  In such cases, the federal government will ignore Maryland PBJ (as will other states that coordinate with the federal government on commercial driver’s licenses.)  It can sometimes be more important for some motorists to avoid 15 over and a PBJ, than a conviction outright at 14 miles an hour, as a second “major infraction” can suspend a motorist’s CDL status and livelihood EVEN IF the judge generously exercises discretion to grant probation before judgment.

When there’s an accident, the entry of a PBJ will not affect the attitude of the carriers and auto tort bar towards civil liability; in such cases, a chargeable accident will have much of the same effect as a moving violation conviction, possibly much more depending on the specifics.

Finally, the granting of a PBJ may not remove immigration fall-out for non-citizens charged with major offenses.  An “aggravated felony” can include misdemeanors for which the maximum punishment equals or exceeds two years in jail.  Accordingly, some of the more severe motor vehicle charges can have immigration consequences for non-citizens even if a judge grants PBJ.  The interface of immigration law and criminal law is a liability-prone area for criminal practice and attorneys need to be extremely detail oriented whenever representing a non-citizen in criminal court.

Anyone facing any of these situations, ESPECIALLY those involving a theoretical possibility of jail but also civil, CDL consequences or any immigration consequences of any sort, should retain counsel.  Part of the reason is that an unrepresented person might be persuaded by a prosecutor offering a bad deal in the form of “not opposing probation” when the fight to a not guilty on all or at least some of the charges is necessary.  It’s always a good idea to take an attorney to court, but it’s more important when the consequences are complex, especially more complex that even the sentencing judge may realize.