Roxboro and Geer accident on Friday afternoon

From a posting by Steve Graff, president of the Old North Durham Neighborhood Association, this afternoon, to several local listservs:

I was just driving back home from a quick trip downtown and came across an bad accident scene at Roxboro and Geer. Roxboro north of that point was blocked off, as was Geer to the East. The entire Northeast corner was blocked off with police cars and crime scene tape.

It appears that a large pickup truck hit an older blue sedan. The sedan appeared to have had it's top cut off. It looked like it was hit in the center of the car on the passenger side with tremendous force. From the best that I could determine, the police at the scene were performing an investigation, taking measurements. I did not see any civilians who might have been the occupants of either vehicle.

I would be surprised if the occupants of the blue sedan survived. It really looked that bad.

Steve has a photo on his blog too.


The Durham Herald-Sun reports that - "According to Michael, An El Camino that was eastbound on Geer and a Chevrolet pickup that was northbound on North Roxboro collided in the intersection.

The El Camino apparently went through a red light, according to police investigators.

The female driver of the El Camino and a 9-year-old boy passenger in the car were trapped and extricated with the so-called "Jaws of Life." "

Response From News And Observer

Received from Mark Schultz, the Durham/Orange editor of the News and Observer:

Thanks for your note, though we prefer to know who we're talking with.

Taking aim can be literal or metaphorical. They clearly are taking aim at the speeders, even if no one has lifted a gun yet. The sign itself is an implied threat.

Thank you Mark. Now that we know we should be reading the story as poetry, we feel much better about it.

Fanning the flames

The News and Observer story we linked to in the post below begins with this sentence: "Residents with paintball guns are taking aim at speeders in one Durham neighborhood."

We would ask if the reporter who wrote the story has seen any residents with any paintball guns in any Durham neighborhood taking aim at any speeders? This is exactly what Dan Sperry of the American World Paintball Union referred to in his open letter, which we published here yesterday:

I am asking two things with this open letter. 1. I would like the media to stop the circus around these signs and actually use your resources for good rather than ratings. Instead (of) reporting the sign, do some research and digging, find out why the people aren't being heard why police aren't posting positions on the street. Find out why
the people who pay taxes can't get signs or speed bumps.

We have written to Mr. Chambers and his editor. We will publish any response from them.

Credibility

We are confused by Police Chief Jose Lopez's comments in a News and Observer story yesterday. (We've also seen the story at Cleveland.com. If you see it in your local paper, please let us know.)

"To hide behind the Internet and do something like this takes away from your credibility," he said.

The Police Department has been working on plans for stronger citywide enforcement, he said.

Working with the police is the best way to reduce speeding, not taking matters into one's own hands, Lopez added.

"It's not the poster; it's what the poster represents," Lopez said of the signs. "It represents the need to look out for someone assaulting you, in a sense, with a paintball. You're going to look around to see who's out there instead of looking at the road before you. It's pretty much indicating an act of imminent violence. Two wrongs don't make a right."

For starters, why is the chief concerned with our credibility? We have said repeatedly, and we repeat, this is not about us. This is about the selfish and reckless behavior we see daily on the streets where we live, work, and play. This is about reducing the problem of neighborhood speeding.

Whose credibility is really at stake? Either Durham has a neighborhood speeding problem, or it doesn't. We say it does. Durham PD issued a statement on Monday pointing to the increased number of speeding citations written in a three block area over a period of weeks in July. We think that means Durham PD recognizes the problem. Chief Lopez says "The Police Department has been working on plans for stronger citywide enforcement." We think that means Chief Lopez recognizes that neighborhood speeding is a citywide problem. We are grateful for the increased efforts that Durham PD is undertaking to make our streets safer. We are hopeful that this means Durham PD and other city departments will be working together to develop a comprehensive program to reduce neighborhood speeding.

Chief Lopez has previously stated that discharging a paintball gun at a moving vehicle would be a criminal violation. We have no intention of becoming criminals.

Chief Lopez says "You're going to look around to see who's out there instead of looking at the road before you." Does he believe that not being aware of your surroundings, that not seeing who's out there, will lead to fewer accidents? A six year old girl was killed in Raleigh yesterday exiting a school bus by a driver who didn't see her. If our signs have made drivers more aware of their surroundings, and of the possibility that there are people out there on our neighborhood streets, we think that makes our streets more, not less, safe.

Chief Lopez says that working with the police is the best way to reduce speeding. We have lost track of the number of times we have contacted the City of Durham and the Police Department over the years in an effort to reduce speeding. We have no idea how much money the City of Durham has spent in the past decade on traffic calming measures both ordinary (speed humps and traffic circles) and extraordinary (neckdowns and chicanes, for example). We have no idea how long the waiting list is for speed humps at the moment. But each of these requests represents an effort by the citizens of Durham to work with the city and the Police Department to reduce neighborhood speeding. What is surprising is that the Chief had a functioning, successful program that encouraged citizens to work with the Police to reduce speeding. It was dropped for "budgetary" reasons. We've asked the Police Department to provide figures indicating how much money was saved by dropping the PACE Car program, but have not heard back.

Our credibility is not the issue. The internet is not the issue. Neighborhood speeding is the issue. We look forward to learning the details of the Chief's plan for "stronger citywide enforcement." Beyond that, we look forward to hearing from the rest of our city's leadership how they plan to make reducing neighborhood speeding a priority for all of the city's government, not just the Police Department.

We get letters

I would like to applaud you and your group for your efforts to slow speeders on your residential street. I also live on a residential street that runs between two busier streets so a lot of users cut down our street as a shortcut. They often speed, even though there are often many kids outside playing. I know that speeding isn't a major criminal offense but the actions of drivers like the ones that speed down our streets show a total lack of regard for the people who live there. It's time to take back our streets! Good for you and your efforts to make your street safer for the people who live there. Bag a couple of those a-holes for me!

Regards,

Guest editorial

Note: the Angry Neighbor received this open letter earlier this afternoon. We have read it, but are not ready to respond yet. We share it with you in the interest of dialog, and thank the writer for his time and concern.
===================================

Hello,
I am Dan a member and (USA) founder of the World Paint Ball Union. I am writing an open letter to show our disapproval of signs and of the media circus involved with the signs. Paintball markers are made for a design to be used in controlled environments with proper safety devices in place. Malicious paintballs can be very harmful to all
people in the surrounding area even the kids you are claiming to protect with them. Since no one has gone on the record to say wither these signs are meant to be joke, or if you will shoot speeding cars we can only look at this is threats being made with our sporting equipment.

There are multiple things the media as failed to mention. How many of the town people are trained to use a speed calculating device? When did it become ok to threaten violence on someone? When did it become ok to persecute someone with out a conviction? When did it become ok to fire paint filled projectiles travelling 280fps if not more into the public with out any regard to public safety.

I don't blame the community per-say as I live on a street with the same situation, I am also sure that the community people don't realize the harm that can be inflicted from shooting paintball markers maliciously. I do say shame on the Media however.

I am asking two things with this open letter. 1. I would like the media to stop the circus around these signs and actually use your resources for good rather than ratings. Instead reporting the sign, do some research and digging find our why the people aren't being heard why police aren't posting positions on the street. Find out why the people who pay taxes can't get signs or speed bumps. 2. I am asking the community to remove the signs. We will help you in your fight to stop the speeders We can reach out the town, and even local fields and players. I am sure the bulls wouldn't want you to chase after the speeders throwing bats and baseballs t

To the community, we know you didn't mean harm but the signs really hurt our sport. I know people including ones who play don't see anything wrong with this but there is, and here is are 2 scenarios that are very possible. Someone that sees this on the news or reads it in a paper buys a paintball marker to be a vigilante, sees a car that he thinks is speeding and shoots a paintball at it. Instead of the guy hitting the car he hits a kid on a bike in the eye. The end result the person is still speeding and now a child in the community will be blind and missing an eye for life. Then the media will do all new reports that a town of people hurt a child and they should all be
arrested and paintball should be banned. Yes the same media who chuckled at the idea.

The second scenario is that the signs aren't a joke and people really do shoot a driver while he is speeding. Some one shoots the driver it causes him to loose control of his vehicle the vehicle drives into a house or a crowd of people killing someone the vigilante is now someone who committed manslaughter.

These signs set a bad example for the Everyone, The community, The Kids, and the Paintball players.

Paintballs are round dimpled pieces of gelatin, they shoot at 280 to 300 feet per second and can leave welts and bruises. Paintball when played in the correct environment is safe and fun but when played maliciously in a city environment is dangerous and could be deadly.

Thank you for taking you time to read this
Dan Sperry
Founder and Member of the World Paintball Union
http://wpbu.org


The WPBU is an internationally founded Union of Paintball Players both professional and recreational. We are a worldwide nonprofit group that has members from every continent. Our goal is to promote paint ball in a positive light and help the local communities. We do not condone any misuse of Paint ball Markers, or paint balls them self and hope that people that do get prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
We have three sections of rules to all of us in the union need to
abide by. These rules can be found on our website

We get letters - From California!

Last year, my own neighbor and I talked about a paintball speed "remedy" for our residential street, too. Our homes are on a street that is posted as a 30 mph zone, but we have people that fly down our street at speeds of 60 or more. My wife has petitioned the city for speed bumps and/or stop signs for 6 years with no success. You've re-inspired me. Keep up the great work!

Sacramento, CA