United Cerebral Palsy bus involved in serious crash at Rt. 235 and Airport View Drive

Developers keep on building and officials continue to ignore deadly intersections along Rt. 235

The bus failed to stop for the pickup truck and plowed into it, causing the bus driver to be injured and the driver of the pickup said he was not hurt, he is standing in front of his pickup truck, above, while firefighters work to extract the bus driver at right.   ST. MARY'S TODAY photos by Matthew Ivancie Heroes at Work Hollywood and Bay District volunteers work to bring out the bus driver while Hollywood Volunteer Rescue Squad members and Advanced Life Support Medics stabilize her for a light to trauma center.  ST. MARY'S TODAY photos by Matthew Ivancie By Kenneth C. Rossignol ST. MARY'S TODAY HOLLYWOOD ---  The developers and their puppets, otherwise known as the St. Mary's Commissioners, who have been adding new developments and structures to both sides of the intersection of Rt. 235 at the Early Bird can enjoy the scene of the latest calamity, partly of their making, when a bus trying to cross the southbound lanes of Rt. 235 just before 4 pm Monday, failed to yield to a southbound Ford F-250 and another really terrible collision occurred.  Metcom Commissioner Joe St. Clair, who while he was on the planning commission, found few developments in the area to oppose, has worked hard over the past few years to have his old Swing and Swat business turned into a new townhouse development, which is now going on the market.  St. Clair even pompously opposed some developments, perhaps not belonging to his pals, while working on having his own development proceed and obtain approvals. The county recently approved a new office building for Smartronics at an intersection just north of this dangerous Airport View Drive intersection and during the approval process said that the firm should have to contribute to the erection of a traffic signal if it is deemed required.   What the county should find that would make the intersection need a traffic signal more than the inability of cross traffic to be able to safely cross Rt. 235 is perhaps known only to the mental midgets in Leonardtown who play Monopoly with the Planning and Sewer commissions in order to enrich themselves and their cronies.  In addition to the wide open and dangerous intersection of Airport View Drive are the nearby Clarke's Landing and Bean Building intersections.  At these deadly intersections, as many as 16 legal turns can be made by drivers with many drivers determined to make them at the same time.  St. Mary's County has embarked on a path of ignoring these intersections and failing to earmark them for being critical and in need of changes.  The political power of Dr. Vinny Shah, who heads the Shah Associates, apparently has not been able to be used for the benefit of his patients.  Older patients who are among the hundreds of motorists who enter and leave the Shah's Bean Medical Center each day have a tough time coming out and making a left turn at this dangerous intersection.  One such patient was former Commissioner President J. Wilmer Bowles, who misjudged the speed of a southbound driver and pulled out in front of him.  Bowles was smashed to death and died on the spot after he was hit by the southbound vehicle, much like today's wreck.  The gore at the scene of Bowles tragic death sickened a season state police sergeant on the scene. Since Bowles death, nothing has been done to contain or limit the ability of older and drugged drivers to leave the medical center.   Dr. Vinny Shah could not be reached for comment as he was out of the country. While St. Mary's County and the State of Maryland fail to do anything meaningful to speed up the day when commuter rail can run into the county on the old Navy railroad right of way, the officials continue to add and expand sewer and water lines in the Hollywood area, allow explosive development at Wildewood and fail to require developers such as St. Clair to participate in the cost of new traffic signals which would help the existing flow of traffic and even help his future customers. One official who doesn't need any more studies done to determine the need for a traffic signal at Airport View Drive is St. Mary's Sheriff Tim Cameron.  "We had a staff report this morning that in the past week there have been 67 accidents which our officers have responded to, that is just one week, and this one today at Airport View Drive could likely have been prevented with a traffic signal in place," said Sheriff Cameron.  "I am going to hand deliver a letter to Senator Dyson tomorrow asking him to make a traffic signal at that intersection a priority. We need it now, not later, how many more people have to be maimed and injured to make the State put in a light?" Bean Medical Center at Rt. 235 The wreck on Rt. 235 where former Commissioner President J. Wilmer Bowles pulled out in front of a southbound vehicle and was killed instantly.  This intersection at the Bean Medical Center poses a daily hazard to senior citizens and is a mile from the Airport View and Clarkes Landing intersections. This wreck took place in August of 2003 and yet nothing has been done to make this intersection safer, but the Navy Alliance never addresses safe roads or an enhanced transportation system as part of their agenda in the BRAC process. ST. MARY'S TODAY photo Clarkes Landing Road at Rt. 235 Firefighters clean up the broken glass off the highway at Clarkes Landing Road in this 2003 wreck. ST. MARY'S TODAY photo Airport View Drive at Rt. 235   Volunteer firefighters push a wrecked car out of Rt. 235 at Airport View Drive in 2004. ST. MARY'S TODAY photo