Police make plea to witnesses in hit-and-runs
by Greg Simmons
Gazette Staff Writer
Dec. 27, 2000

While pedestrian deaths continue to outnumber homicides in Montgomery County, police are making more public pleas for witnesses to come forward in still-unsolved hit-and-run fatalities.

"We really do need people to call us," said police Chief Charles A. Moose at a press conference last week. "We can never get enough witnesses."

Police charged and arrested Pedro Gutierrez, 46, of Alexandria, Va., Dec. 20 with seven traffic violations after the hit-and-run  incident Dec. 8 involving Silver Spring resident Rajiv Vaidya.

Vaidya, who was 26, died from his injuries three days later.

Moose said the work that led to that arrest was just "old-fashioned police work."

Officer Stephen Gaynor was patrolling Lyttonsville Road Dec. 19 when he spotted a car that matched the description of the car that hit Vaidya on East-West Highway.

"It was pure luck," Gaynor said. A police detective had handed out a flier describing the suspected car, a dark red 1987-1988 Nissan 200 SX, earlier that morning to all the patrol officers on duty.

The flier also said the car would be damaged in the front. Police said witnesses saw the driver stop, get out of his car, look at Vaidya, and pull the front fender away from the tire. The driver then sped away, police said.

Gaynor spotted the 1987 Nissan nearly two weeks after the accident. When Gutierrez, a cook who works in D.C., came to the car, Gaynor questioned him, and Gutierrez revealed he had hit Vaidya, police said.

Police have no leads in two other county pedestrian hit-and-run deaths earlier this month.

Justo Palencia, 67, of Wheaton, died while crossing Connecticut Avenue Dec. 13, and John Wesley Hall, 40, died after being hit multiple times in Gaithersburg.

In Hall's death, police say there must be several witnesses because he had been hit several times.

In the meantime, new legislation might be proposed because of the deadly traffic problems in the county.

Police said Vaidya's family is appalled at the state's laws regarding pedestrian deaths. Of the seven charges against Gutierrez, the highest charge -- leaving the scene of an accident that caused injury or death -- could net him a maximum of five years in jail and a $5,000 fine.

"I think there's a void in the law to be filled," said, John McCarthy, the county deputy state's attorney.

McCarthy said 23 other states have overarching pedestrian homicide laws, but prosecutors in Maryland can only charge a drivers with homicide if they are drunk at the time the accident occurs.

The County Council also has made official statements in support of changing state traffic law.

County Councilman Phil Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg, and the rest of the council have been pushing for a hike in the fine for red light running to $250.

Andrews said reckless driving is the most dangerous thing people have to face in the county.

"People have to start behaving like red light running is wrong," he said.

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