Reader Suggests Salt Truck at Fault for Fatal Wreck

To the Editor:

First off, I’d like to say that I am truly sorry for the friends and family of Denis and Tricia.  I have been following the story and reading the responses posted online by readers and your editorial responses.  Your attitude in a situation where there are no winners is sickening to me.  Every word I read makes me angrier and angrier.  I realize that you are posting these responses because you feel it makes good reading.  Of course, controversy always makes good reading right?  In your reply’s, you state that your “expert” reconstructionist determined speed to be the factor that caused Denis to lose control of his car and cross the center line.  You say it with such contempt that it leads me to believe that you were there.  Have you fully thought out all the possibilities of what might have happened that night?   You state that the driver of the dodge truck was following a salt truck at a safe distance.  That is exactly what the driver of the Dodge should have been doing.  But have you ever driven past a salt truck going in the other direction while it is spraying salt?  The force at which the salt hits your car is not only sometimes startling, but it is often blinding.  I have driven a Lexus SC300 before and it is a high powered rear wheel drive vehicle.  A slight tug on the wheel along with a little bit of black ice could cause that car to lose control at speeds as low as 10MPH.  I would like to know why you are so certain that a scenario like this one or any others besides excessive speed have been ruled out in your mind?

 

Lance F. Milan IV

(Editor's Note:  The taxpayers of Maryland have invested heavily in the training of those assigned to reconstructing serious or fatal wrecks.  They are not staff employees of this newspaper. These officers are professional and humane individuals who know that the best service that they give to all families and friends of those who are critically hurt or die in a wreck is to discover and report the facts.  That is what they have done in this case and that is what was reported.  If they provide any additional information in the future on this investigation that news will be shared with our readers.  Your statement that the report of this cause of this wreck or any of our replies to reader's viewpoints shows "contempt" is outrageous, false and is a blatant attempt to intimidate.  Go soak your head.  While there are leadership problems in the St. Mary's Sheriff's Department, the men and women who are out on the line doing their duty do a good job and no information has been presented to indicate that their investigation was flawed.)