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Article 4: Fairfax woman killed in head-on crash in Great Falls
By Tom Jackman
Friday, February 12, 2010; 6:03 PM
A Fairfax County woman was killed Tuesday morning when her car crossed the center line on Georgetown Pike in the Great Falls area and crashed head-on into a sport-utility vehicle, Fairfax police said.
Police said Marilyn Miller, 64, of Streamview Court in Great Falls was driving a 2006 Acura RSX west on Georgetown Pike. As she neared Springvale Road about 10:15 a.m., the Acura crossed into the eastbound lanes for unknown reasons, Officer Bud Walker said, and collided with a 2001 Ford Escape being driven by a 70-year-old Purcellville man.
Miller was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Escape and his passenger, a 62-year-old Purcellville woman, were taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. Walker said speed and alcohol are not considered factors in the crash. Georgetown Pike was closed in both directions between Springvale and Utterback Store roads for about three hours while police investigated, Walker said.
© 2010 The Washington Post Company
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Article 5: Drunk driver gets 9 years in fatal wrong-way Beltway crash
By Tom Jackman
Monday, February 8, 2010; B03
A man who was drunk and driving the wrong way on the Capital Beltway when he smashed into and killed a Fairfax County woman in March was sentenced to nine years in prison Thursday by the jury that convicted him the night before of aggravated involuntary manslaughter.
The crash occurred as Cristina L. Palese, a 28-year-old mother of two young children, was heading home to Springfield after working at the Cadillac Ranch restaurant at National Harbor. As she neared the Van Dorn Street exit on the inner loop, her Nissan Sentra was met head-on by a Lincoln LS sedan driven by Travis J. Isaac, 26, of Woodbridge, who had a previous conviction for drunken driving.
Palese was killed instantly. Isaac suffered a compound fracture in the leg. His blood alcohol level was measured at 0.16, twice the legal definition of intoxication in Virginia. He has been held in the Fairfax jail since the March 21, 2009 accident, which was not disclosed publicly by the Virginia State Police.
Palese was a popular waitress and bartender at several Northern Virginia restaurants, including the Hard Times Cafe in Springfield, for several years, and she had worked her way up to manager and event planner at the newly opened Cadillac Ranch. Her family said she had struggled through some tough times: Her son, Kyle, 9, was found to have cancer as a baby and required two years of treatment, and her mother died at age 59 in 2008.
"Even going through all that, she was just so positive, so upbeat," her sister Danielle Barber said. Palese was known to invent short, silly dances to cheer up friends and cover her own lack of dancing ability, her brother, Michael Palese, said.
Isaac has three children of his own, ages 8, 6 and 1, and he worked for his father at an electronics repair store. He also has a string of criminal convictions, including one in 2002 for drunken driving, as well as others for burglary, petty larceny, possession of marijuana, attempted firearm possession by a felon and driving on a suspended license. He had no license at the time of the crash, and he testified that he had no memory of the crash or his actions before it.
But obtaining a manslaughter conviction was no sure thing for Fairfax prosecutors. For one thing, state police were able to locate only one witness to the crash, an off-duty Metro Transit Police officer who said there were 40 cars on that part of the inner loop at 3:30 a.m.
The officer, Michael Weinsheimer, said he saw a set of headlights go by, as other cars veered out of the way, and then heard a boom and saw spinning lights in his rearview mirror. But he could not definitively describe either of the cars involved, opening the door to a second theory by defense attorney James Freeman.
Perhaps Palese was the one driving the wrong way, Freeman said. That allowed Freeman to introduce evidence of Palese's blood alcohol content: 0.09, also legally drunk.
The police's accident reconstruction data might be expected to clear up which car was going which way. But under Virginia law, police reconstruction analysis is not admissible in criminal court, lawyers said. Skid marks or other physical evidence might be allowed, but calculations about speed, momentum and impact are too imprecise to allow testimony about them, the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled. Maryland and the District do not have similar restrictions.
"There is no one that is able to identify which vehicle was going the wrong way," Freeman argued to the jury. "The law says you cannot base a verdict on sympathy."
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Camille Turner noted that Weinsheimer saw a red car, the color of Palese's Nissan, going west, and a black car, the color of Isaac's Lincoln, going east. Freeman's theory had "no evidence to support" it, Turner said.
The jury took two hours to convict Isaac, setting up Thursday's sentencing hearing, where he faced a possible prison term of 20 years.
Isaac took the stand at that hearing and, in an emotion-racked courtroom, took full responsibility. "There are no words I can come up with that even begin to express how sorry I am for what happened," he said, as his own family and the Paleses collapsed in tears. "I think about her children. I pray for her family every night. Every night."
Freeman produced a letter of apology that Isaac had written shortly after the accident, which Freeman had withheld until the trial was over.
Palese's sister said she was "always with the kids." She showed her daughter Madeline flash cards in her crib, her husband Chris Mickey said. She was a committed soccer mom for her son, making the team banner every year and persuading each team to have a snake mascot so she wouldn't have to rework the banner's design.
The jury took nearly three hours before imposing the nine-year sentence. The Paleses were stunned. "It's kind of a slap on the wrist to me," Barber said. Isaac will be eligible
for release when he is 33.
© 2010 The Washington Post Company
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Article 6: Icy road blamed for fatal accident in Wheaton
By Josh White
Tuesday, February 16, 2010; 12:53 PM
Cold temperatures overnight following rain across the region on Monday left some roads icy on Tuesday morning, conditions that police are blaming for at least one fatal accident in Wheaton.
Montgomery County police said David Charang Kang, 68, of Ashton, Md., lost control of his 1999 Toyota 4 Runner on ice while heading north in the 6300 block of Muncaster Mill Road, near Bowie Mill Road, just before 8 a.m. on Tuesday. The car hit a curb then careened into a tree before coming to rest in a wooded area on the east side of the road. Kang was pronounced dead at the scene.
© 2010 The Washington Post Company
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Article 7: Rock Creek crash victim told friends he was staying in for the night
By Matt Zapotosky
Tuesday, February 9, 2010; B01
As his roommates walked out the door of their Arlington County house Saturday to continue a night of drinking at the bars, Joshua Kuhlman handed them money for cab fare, one of the roommates said. Kuhlman assured them that he would be staying in for the night with his girlfriend -- after all, he was in no shape to drive -- but he wanted to make sure his friends got home safely, the roommate said.
The responsible gesture would become tragically ironic.
Telling his girlfriend that he would see her on Sunday, Kuhlman, 22, apparently hopped in his Honda Civic and drove toward her house in Northwest Washington, said Kuhlman's roommate, Brendan Kittredge. On Rock Creek Parkway just below P Street NW, Kuhlman apparently lost control of his car and crashed into the creek. When the vehicle was finally spotted by a jogger just after 10 a.m. Sunday, only a tire was visible, and authorities had to chip ice away to get to an unresponsive Kuhlman, who was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
"It was just shock. It's still shock," Kittredge said. "Just confusion: You don't know whether to be angry, sad, mad."
Police and fire officials have said only that Kuhlman's vehicle ended up in Rock Creek early Sunday and that it looked as if it had been there at least several hours. They have not provided a timeline for when Kuhlman drove into the creek or said what caused him to do so. But the accounts of Kuhlman's roommates and his girlfriend, Amanda Mullens, who designated Kittredge as a sort of spokesman, shed light on Kuhlman's death.
Kuhlman had been drinking Saturday night, too much to drive, said Kittredge, 24. And when he wasn't around the next morning, no one was troubled. Mullens thought Kuhlman had heeded her advice not to come over that night, Kittredge said. And Kittredge's girlfriend had spotted a car outside the house that looked like Kuhlman's, so the roommates figured that Mullens had swung by to pick up her boyfriend.
It was not until police showed up Sunday afternoon that the friends were able to piece together what happened, Kittredge said.
"I think it's pretty cut and dried exactly what happened. Josh had been here with us before, and we were all going out to the bars, and he communicated to me that he was going to stay and Amanda was coming over to see him," Kittredge said. "After we had left, I guess, the plans changed. . . . No one knew he was going there, obviously, which is one reason no one knew he was gone."
Kuhlman grew up mostly in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, attending a private school in Lewisville, N.C., during his junior high and high school years, family and friends said. There, at Forsyth Country Day School, Kuhlman was an all-state athlete in track and soccer and a member of the National Honor Society and Boys Service Club, among other activities, said school headmaster Hank Battle.
"He was one of those all-around wonderful students and individuals," Battle said. "Obviously, our mourning is widespread."
Kuhlman graduated from Forsyth in 2005 and left home for Johns Hopkins University, where he had been recruited to play soccer, said his father, Jeff Kuhlman. Joshua Kuhlman graduated from Hopkins in 2009 with a degree in economics, his father said, and he soon went to work as a civilian in acquisitions for the U.S. Navy.
Jeff Kuhlman, 46, of Advance, N.C., said he last saw his son over the Christmas holiday and Kuhlman's mother, Amy, might have talked to him on the phone since then. But he said family members did not know about Joshua's death or suspect anything was amiss until Sunday. He said he is unsure whether "anybody is ever going know why" his son's car left the roadway.
Joshua Kuhlman is also survived by two brothers, Brad, 19, and Greg, 18, his father said.
"Things happen for a reason, and hopefully someday I'll figure this one out," Jeff Kuhlman said. "We miss him, and we feel the loss, and we were so proud of him and looking forward to see what he could do."
© 2010 The Washington Post Company
Article 1:
1. “Maryland man killed fleeing crash scene in police car” Feb 2, 2010
2. Taylor was speeding and he crashed into a tree.
3. Does not identify whether seatbelts were worn
4. Does not identify whether alcohol or other drugs were involved
5. This crash could have been prevented if Taylor had not been speeding.
6. Both speed and reckless driving were a big factor in the crash
Article2:
1. “Woodbridge student killed in Dale City crash” Feb 5, 2010
2. The student’s car went out of control, inferring that he was not paying attention and went over the speed limit.
3. Does not identify whether seatbelts were worn
4. Alcohol and other drugs were not mentioned in this meaning that there were not involved
5. This crash could have been prevented by the student driving with more caution and not speeding.
6. Both speed and reckless driving were a factor in this crash
Article 3:
1. “Burke woman killed in car crash” Feb 13, 2010
2. Zinn lost control of her vehicle causing her to run off the road, hit a concrete median, run off the right shoulder and hit a tree
3. She was not wearing a seatbelt
4. Alcohol and other drugs were not mentioned in this article which we can infer that none were involved
5. This crash could have been prevented by the woman driving with more caution and being more careful
6. I can infer that reckless driving was a factor in the crash because one does not just lose control of his vehicle
Article 4:
1. “Fairfax woman killed in head-on crash in Great Falls” Feb 12, 2010
2. It does not directly state the cause but I can infer that the cause was her reckless driving
3. It does not mention whether seatbelts were worn
4. Alcohol and other drugs were not involved in this crash
5. This crash could have been easily prevented if she had been driving with more caution because for the reason she crossed the center line, she crashed head-on into a sport-utility vehicle
6. Speed was not a considered factor in this crash although reckless driving was
Article 5:
1. “Drunk driver gets 9 years in fatal wrong-way Beltway crash” Feb 8, 2010
2. Driver was drunk and he lost control of his vehicle
3. The use of seatbelts are not identified
4. Alcohol was involved in this crash and was the main reason for this crash
5. This crash could have been prevented if the driver knew which way he was going, driving with more caution and not driving after drinking alcohol.
6. Reckless driving was a big factor in this crash
Article 6:
1. “Icy road blamed for fatal accident in Wheaton” Feb 16, 2010
2. The road had been frozen with ice overnight, this cause the vehicle to slip
3 It is not identified whether or not seatbelts were worn
4. No alcohol or other drugs were involved
5. This crash could have been prevented if the driver was more cautious because the roads were slippery and he should have been going slower than speed limit
6. Both were not a factor but a major factor that played in this crash was just not being more careful cause of the conditions of the roads, driving with more caution
Article 7:
1. “Rock Creek crash victim told friends he was staying in for the night” Feb 9, 2010
2. Driver was drunk and he decided to drive, he was not driving with caution
3. Not identified in the article if seatbelts were worn
4. Alcohol was involved in this crash
5. This crash could have been prevented if he decided to ride the taxi instead of driving his own vehicle while being drunk
6. Speed was not a factor in this crash, although some can argue that reckless driving, because he was drunk was a factor that played in this crash
After doing reading these articles and analyzing the cause of the crash and ways to prevent it, I feel much more confident not to make the same mistakes. I feel very secure that I know what not to do and the consequences that follow those wrong doings. I noticed that when people are killed in consequence of a car crash, most are not using their seatbelts. After reading the articles, I started to wear my seatbelt more often. I think about what could happen if I don’t wear my seatbelt like what had happened in the articles. People in speed and reckless driving crashes in the articles I read were killed because of their actions. Taking responsibility for you actions is very much the case while driving. While driving, a decision you make, you are responsible for possibly your own death and the death of others if an accident were to occur. The project and analyzing the articles really influenced me into driving with more caution, being more careful on the road in any condition, and being aware of my boundaries.
The articles gave me tips on how not to drive and the analyzing showed me how to drive in different conditions. Making decisions are very difficult but once you’re in the driver’s seat, decision making may take one second but that one second decides the life of a person. I have learned much more about driving and I continue to look at articles when I have the time to because for me to drive more safely for myself and others on the road, I need to be educated on the possibilities on decisions while driving. This project was a great way to get me to notice that crashes are all over the place and that crashes don’t just kill or harm the one vehicle, that one vehicle puts others in danger as well.