A memorial for cyclist Sarah Langencamp where he was killed in Bethesda. Photos courtesy of Dan Langencamp.
By Dan Langencamp
The author Sarah Debbink is the husband of Langencamp, who was killed in 2022 while riding her bicycle in Bethesda.
If you want to kill someone, do it by car.
So the road safety becomes maximum in the community, which is angry with the light punishment imposed on the drivers when they kill pedestrians and cyclists on roadways across America. I am also angry.
Eighteen months ago, my wife, Sara Debink Langencamp, an American diplomat and mother of our two boys were crushed when a driver rotated his 50,000 pound trucks in his parking, without seeing Sara to supply the Bicon Building, which was clearly riding his bike in a bike lane. She hit her handlebars, she fell, and her huge truck wheels rolled over her, took this beautiful and skillful mother, wife, diplomat and friend to many people.
Sara and I was just from Ukraine, a battle area, For our safety, And we returned to the area weeks ago. Sara was riding a house from an open house in the new primary school of our sons.
You feel that the crime of killing a person will be punished for the magnitude of the act of the act. After all, Maryland punishes a lot for less serious crimes. Maximum penalty for garbage can impose you a fine of $ 30,000 and Five years In jail.
Late Sara Langencamp and his son. Photos courtesy of Dan Langencamp.
Nevertheless, when the driver who killed Sara was sentenced in September, he was sentenced for a traffic violation, which imposed a fine of only $ 2,000 and 150 hours of community service – the maximum punishment allowed by the law to kill a weak road user. His license was referred to for a six -month suspension to the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles. He will probably drive again next month.
In the case, the judge expressed his frustration and said that the law did not give him the ability to sentence only one punishment. Sorry to me, he said. The law did not give him the ability to do anything else.
In view of the sentence, I am the Attorney John Macarthi of Montgomery County State, Dell. Sara Love, and Sen have worked with Ariana Kelly, which will help fix this condition. This is an elegant change to fix a difference. Why not, Macarthi suggested, give some similar protection to the bike lanes and shoulders present for pedestrians in the crosswalk in Maryland?
Sara Debink Langencamp Memorial Safety Act (HB 337 in Maryland House and SB 315 in Senate) just do this, and a little more. The punishment is modest – a fine of up to 60 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $ 2,000 that causes an accident with a bike lane or cyclist in the shoulder. (The fine for the crosswalk is slightly more modest, just $ 1,000). It is far from punishment for garbage, but is it better than the current law. And it sends an important signal to all drivers that bikes lane and shoulders are special – Protected and safe For bicycles.
There is a clear example for providing these protection. We make sufficient punishment for drivers who move into school zones, shut down school buses, and provide prison time for those who kill pedestrians in the crosswalk. As a society we agree that it is not just cars that have the right to use our roads.
Security for cyclists and pedestrians is an issue for all – which includes Marylanders color colors. According to a recent study, across the nation, the black American is likely to die about 3.5 times more than the ears than the ears. The rates of colorful people during cycling have almost doubled, which has doubled for white cycling drivers (27% with white deaths increased to 46% for Latino and 48% for black Americans between 2010 and 2020).
Sara’s death has robbed our country an extraordinary diplomat – a star of our generation foreign service officers, and replaced every minute of my family every minute, ended half of our income, and cut a beautiful, strong, intelligent mother and role model for our boys.
She was one of the about thousands of “weak road users” to die on our streets in 2022, when more bikers were killed since 1994 and when more pedestrians died than 40 years.
Meanwhile, the roads of our industrial colleagues are getting safe and safe every year. Pedestrians are doubled from the possibility of being killed on our roads as compared to Canada.
Will not solve the strict punishment problem alone for murder, but they will do something.
Sara’s bill says that we only care more than garbage. We also care about life.
Re -published