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Police ask that anyone with information about the weekend fatal hit-and-runs call 301-279-8000 or 301-840-2435.
                                     © 2000 The Washington Post


County promotes pedestrian safety
by Manju Subramanya
Gazette Staff Writer
Dec. 15, 2000

A 26-year-old man standing on a median strip in downtown Silver Spring Friday is struck by a car that jumped the curb. The driver gets out to pull his damaged fender away from his front tire before driving away. The pedestrian dies Monday in intensive care as police continue to look for the car and its driver.

A 40-year-old man trying to cross a busy Gaithersburg street Saturday night is left to die after being hit by several cars, none of which stopped.

As The Gazette reported earlier this year, these incidents are not unusual: Since 1994, the county has averaged more than 52 vehicle-related deaths a year -- second only to Prince George's County in the Washington region -- far exceeding the number of homicides. Indeed, in 1999, police statistics show 17 pedestrian deaths compared to 13 homicide victims.

So far this year, the county has recorded 14 pedestrian fatalities and 15 homicides, said county police spokeswoman Joyce Utter.

Those stark numbers prompted County Executive Douglas M. Duncan to form a blue ribbon panel earlier this year to examine how to promote pedestrian and traffic safety.

On Tuesday, in the wake of the hit-and-run incidents in Silver Spring and Gaithersburg, Duncan (D) launched a pedestrian safety campaign with Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose by his side, standing at an Aspen Hill intersection where a pedestrian was killed in September.

Duncan was joined by Shailendra and Vanitha Vaidya, parents of 26-year-old Rajiv Vaidya of Silver Spring, who died of injuries sustained in Friday's hit-and-run.

"These tragedies can and must be prevented. We have got to take more aggressive steps to make our community safer and reduce traffic fatalities and injuries," Duncan said.

GO TO Pedestrian Issues index page
GO TO Bassett Boynton On the Web home page


Virginia Man Held In Fatal Hit-Run
By Katherine Shaver and Phuong Ly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 21, 2000

An Alexandria man was arrested yesterday on charges that he hit and killed a pedestrian crossing a street in downtown Silver Spring earlier this month and stopped only to inspect his car before driving off.

Pedro Gutierrez, 36, of the 2300 block of Duke Street, told investigators he was trying to pick up a cigarette lighter that had fallen between his feet when he hit 26-year-old Rajiv S. Vaidya as he stood on a median on East West Highway just west of 16th Street, according to charging documents.

Gutierrez was charged with seven traffic offenses. The most serious was failing to remain at a fatal accident, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Montgomery County police and prosecutors said the case highlights the need for a vehicular homicide law in Maryland. Unlike in 23 other states, drivers who kill someone in Maryland face only misdemeanor traffic charges unless it can be proved they drove drunk or showed "gross negligence," which prosecutors say is a difficult legal threshold to meet.

Vaidya, an aspiring writer, was waiting on a raised, cement median that juts into the crosswalk about 4:40 p.m. Dec. 8 when witnesses saw a burgundy car veer onto the median, hit a sign and strike Vaidya, police said. At the time, police said the car might be a Ford Probe. The driver, witnesses said, stopped only long enough to pick up several pieces that had broken off his car.

Montgomery Police Chief Charles A. Moose called the act "mean-spirited," saying he was "appalled" that the driver never came forward.

Shailendra and Vanitha Vaidya, both physicians in Philadelphia, said yesterday they were relieved that an arrest had been made in their son's death. However, they said they were upset that a hit-and-run conviction would bring a maximum of only five years in Maryland. "It's inexcusable to drive away and not even stop," said Vanitha Vaidya, the victim's mother. "It's not right. Society has to be protected against such people."

Rajiv Vaidya, whose family said he was probably running an errand, died three days after he was hit.

Gutierrez, who police said works as a cook in the District, was held in lieu of a $500,000 bond set by a District Court commissioner after his arrest. He is scheduled for a bond review hearing today.

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