When trying to avoid a collision, 17-year-old Nicole Tompkins overcorrected and lost control at 65 mph, causing the vehicle to roll, killing her 7-year-old brother, Jarod Tompkins.
At a daylong meeting of transportation officials Wednesday in Linthicum, Cliff and Barbie Tompkins publicly recounted their experience of losing their son. “If we don?t teach our children to drive correctly and respond to emergencies, we or they may lose something bigger: our lives,” said Cliff Tompkins, a Calvert County resident.
Last year, 614 people died in car crashes on Maryland highways, making crashes the leading cause of death for people age 3 to 33.
“Fatal crashes are something we have an obligation to do something about,” said Col. Thomas Hutchins, superintendent of Maryland State Police. “Everyone who has died in a crash, had a name, had a family, they knew somebody, they were more than just a statistic.”
In response to the federal law SAFETEA-LU that requires all states to develop a strategic safety plan, the Maryland Department of Transportation and other administrations from all levels of government gathered at the Maritime Institute in Linthicum Heights to discuss reducing highway fatalities.
“The goal is to develop a strategic plan for highway safety by September 30 of this year,” said Neil Pedersen, administrator of the Maryland State Highway Administration.
Preliminary plans are expected to be ready from each of the 14 workshops by Aug. 15.
The 325 individuals registered to tackle the problems are expected to develop new strategies to guide the state in the next five years, Pedersen said.
The seven emphasis areas include reducing impaired driving, improving data collection to target problem areas, eliminating hazardous locations, increasing occupant protection, improving driver competency, curbing aggressive driving and improving emergency response systems, Pedersen said.
One preliminary plan that resulted from the workshops was to continue education for older drivers, said Valerie Edgar, spokeswoman for MSHA. Strengthening legislation, increasing sobriety checkpoints and reducing impaired driving by 28 percent by 2010 were other goals the groups want to pursue,she said.
“I think people need to know that drunk-driving fatalities are not going down in Maryland, they are going up,” said Nancy Kelly, public policy liaison for MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), whose son was killed in 1997 by a driver on his college campus with a blood-alcohol level of .13.
According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, 45 percent of crashes on Maryland roads are alcohol-related, compared to 39 percent nationally.
Safety tips for drivers
» Never drive when under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
» Be alert when driving through work zones.
» Always use crosswalks.
» Wear your seat belt and always buckle children in.
» Don?t speed or drive aggressively.
» Pull over for emergency vehicles.
Source: Maryland State Highway Administration
