ByKenneth C. Rossignol
DWIHitParade.com
Years ago, in fact, in the very first year or so of DWI coverage as part of running my former newspaper, (about 1992), police and fire were dispatched to a curve on Maryland Rt. 5 south of Great Mills, Maryland, for a 10-50 PI, which in everyday language is collision with person injury.
The location was in front of the old Thompson’s Peach Orchard and when I arrived I found that a fellow who had left the infamous Green Door Bar in Park had operated his car north on Rt. 5 and as he came up the hill, he crossed the center line and struck the side of a station wagon operated by a woman whose husband was assigned to the U. S. Navy Pax River base near Lexington Park.
The car which was operated by Tom Cyrus Jr. hit the station wagon on the driver’s side and the woman had her baby in the back seat of the car, in a child safety seat where he was supposed to be transported.
The baby had recent surgery and was crying and miserable at home when the woman gave up all other attempts to calm the baby and used the time honored tradition of taking the child for a ride in the middle of the night.
She just didn’t know she would be up against a 5 time DWI driver.
The rescue workers from the Lexington Park Volunteer Rescue Squad did everything they could to keep this baby alive and as a helicopter set down in a nearby clearing, the baby turned an ashen gray color and that was likely the time of death, even though the heroic effort would continue.
While the baby was dying, Cyrus sat on the pavement of Rt. 5, with his minor scratches, and began bellyaching that he wasn’t getting any attention to his wounds.
Someone should have taken a piece of the wreckage and belted him over the head. But they didn’t.
Instead, Cyrus went into the system, which is written by lawyers who care more about drunk drivers than they do the victims of drunk driving.
Advocacy groups like MADD have been working for decades to make the laws evenhanded, but MADD doesn’t host too many cocktail receptions in state capitals that are the best way to get to legislators.
Cyrus was reportedly still visiting the Green Door bar as recently as the last couple of years and cops were looking out for him on his way home, waiting to nail him, lets hope they are successful in returning him to prison.
The family of the dead infant has been through misery, according to the sister of the dead baby, their lives changed forever by the act of a drunken coward and crybaby.
I will never forget seeing Cyrus sit on the highway where he had been parked by a cop who was trying his best to help the rescue folks get to the baby.
The bar is still in operation and has been a mecca for barflies and boozedroids for years. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But in Maryland, one cannot sue the bar that serves the drunk who goes out and kills and maims. Too bad.
But the answer to this problem is the same it has always been: personal responsibility. Don’t’ drink and drive.
Party as you wish, just stay off our roads.
Many of us are tired of hearing about this being a disease and people needing treatment. What they need is to be locked up for one year on a first offence. That would put an end to this endless epidemic.In coming days and weeks, more stories of the tragedy brought upon this nation by the careless acts of the buffoons who refuse to stay off our highways after they have been out boozing will be presented.
The location was in front of the old Thompson’s Peach Orchard and when I arrived I found that a fellow who had left the infamous Green Door Bar in Park had operated his car north on Rt. 5 and as he came up the hill, he crossed the center line and struck the side of a station wagon operated by a woman whose husband was assigned to the U. S. Navy Pax River base near Lexington Park.
The car which was operated by Tom Cyrus Jr. hit the station wagon on the driver’s side and the woman had her baby in the back seat of the car, in a child safety seat where he was supposed to be transported.
The baby had recent surgery and was crying and miserable at home when the woman gave up all other attempts to calm the baby and used the time honored tradition of taking the child for a ride in the middle of the night.
She just didn’t know she would be up against a 5 time DWI driver.
The rescue workers from the Lexington Park Volunteer Rescue Squad did everything they could to keep this baby alive and as a helicopter set down in a nearby clearing, the baby turned an ashen gray color and that was likely the time of death, even though the heroic effort would continue.
While the baby was dying, Cyrus sat on the pavement of Rt. 5, with his minor scratches, and began bellyaching that he wasn’t getting any attention to his wounds.
Someone should have taken a piece of the wreckage and belted him over the head. But they didn’t.
Instead, Cyrus went into the system, which is written by lawyers who care more about drunk drivers than they do the victims of drunk driving.
Advocacy groups like MADD have been working for decades to make the laws evenhanded, but MADD doesn’t host too many cocktail receptions in state capitals that are the best way to get to legislators.
Cyrus was reportedly still visiting the Green Door bar as recently as the last couple of years and cops were looking out for him on his way home, waiting to nail him, lets hope they are successful in returning him to prison.
The family of the dead infant has been through misery, according to the sister of the dead baby, their lives changed forever by the act of a drunken coward and crybaby.
I will never forget seeing Cyrus sit on the highway where he had been parked by a cop who was trying his best to help the rescue folks get to the baby.
The bar is still in operation and has been a mecca for barflies and boozedroids for years. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But in Maryland, one cannot sue the bar that serves the drunk who goes out and kills and maims. Too bad.
But the answer to this problem is the same it has always been: personal responsibility. Don’t’ drink and drive.
Party as you wish, just stay off our roads.
Many of us are tired of hearing about this being a disease and people needing treatment. What they need is to be locked up for one year on a first offence. That would put an end to this endless epidemic.In coming days and weeks, more stories of the tragedy brought upon this nation by the careless acts of the buffoons who refuse to stay off our highways after they have been out boozing will be presented.
