🚀 go-pugleaf

In our various discussions of aggressive driving, a number of possible
policy options have been overlooked.  One solution would be to simply
arrest anyone who drives more than 10 mph under the speed limit--better
yet, anyone who drives less than 5mph over the limit.  That would leave
much more room for people who want to go fast, and thus, they would be
less likely to be aggressive because they would be having a better day
with no slowpokes on the road.  Moreover, it is probably easier to
enforce than other solutions because these slow drivers are so easy to
catch.

	This policy is being tested in Frederick County, Maryland. 
Unfortunately, the only description I have is a biased editorial from
the Washington Post, which opposes this policy--which one would expect
from a liberal DC paper.  Still, this conveys the general gist of this
innovative solution to aggressive driving.

See
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-06/26/038l-062698-idx.html

Friday, June 26, 1998; Page A26 

   ESTER MARIA Pena's going to think twice before venturing into
Frederick County,
Md., again. Perhaps so should most motorists if they, like Ms. Pena,
happen to drive
 under the speed limit and might be likely to mistake a sheriff deputy's
siren for an
  ambulance. Her harrowing June 12 experience with three county officers
is one that
ought to have county leaders and other citizens up in arms.
 For driving 38 mph in a 55 mph zone and not pulling over when she heard
a siren --
 which she thought was coming from an ambulance she couldn't see --
Frederick
                 
	 County sheriff's deputies, one with gun drawn, descended upon Ms.
Pena, a D.C.
   schoolteacher, manhandling her as if she were public enemy No. 1. It
was a stark
  case of an excessive use of force and police overreaction. It was also
a dumb thing
  to have done, made only dumber by the explanations from the sheriff's
department.

 "Older ladies that are confused and scared unfortunately cause
accidents," said
  Maj. Francis Tully in the sheriff's office. He was referring to the
58-year-old Ms.
Pena. Consider the possibility, however, that Maj. Tully has it
backward. That
 maybe Ms. Pena -- who was driving slowly along the highway looking for
an exit so
 she could get to her ladies' church group on time for lunch -- ended up
scared out of
her wits by the behavior of his deputies. Maybe driving slowly looking
for a left exit
 does impede traffic flow. But does it warrant being pulled over,
ordered to put your
 hands behind your head by officers -- one with gun drawn -- yanked out
of your car
by your arm, made to bend over the trunk, handcuffed roughly, and then
hauled off
to the county detention center, where you're kept in leg shackles for
hours while
waiting for a bail commissioner? We'd say Ms. Pena had good and
sufficient reason
to be terrified, disgusted and mad as hell to boot.

                  Frederick County leaders ought to be all over the
sheriff's department. How in the name of sweet reason could Ms. Pena
have been arrested, shackled and charged
 with "fleeing and eluding" when she was driving 17 miles under the
speed limit?
And how, in the face of such official excess, could State's Attorney
Scott Rolle
 defend those officers? Ms. Pena didn't deserve to be treated like a
dangerous felon.
The danger that existed came from the other side. 

                             � Copyright 1998 The Washington Post
Company