Woman Goes on Rampage, 35 Injured, 7 Severely

[Rage for Order]

She did it with a car, not a gun. I'm thinking we might need to start taking cars from people to reduce the danger to society.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070603/ap_on_re_us/pedestrians_struck

A car plowed through several blocks at a crowded street festival, injuring about 35 people, seven severely, authorities said. The driver was arrested near the scene. Witnesses said strollers were flung into the air and one person was trapped beneath the car's wheels during the chaos Saturday night in the city's Anacostia neighborhood.

Police identified the driver as Tonya Bell, 30, of Oxon Hill, Md., who was charged with aggravated assault while armed. District of Columbia Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said additional charges are pending. Police said Bell had a 7-year-old child in the car with her. We're still trying to piece together exactly just what happened that led up to this," Lanier said at the scene. She said a vehicle believed to be Bell's was driving erratically and struck a police car and fled the scene about a half-hour before the crash at the festival, which occurred at about 8 p.m.

Alan Etter, a spokesman for the District of Columbia fire department, said authorities believe Bell was going about 70 mph when she tore through the festival. Litter and debris from food stands were scattered in the street. Witnesses described an extended period of mayhem in which the driver started off slowly through some closed streets and finally hit the accelerator on the avenue running through the heart of Unifest, an annual event sponsored by a church. The car hit a stage where people were dancing, witnesses said. It was not clear what finally caused it to stop.

Ryland Anderson, 19, and Philemon Walker, 24, told The Washington Post they were about to cross the street as the festival was winding down when the car sped past. They described strollers being flung into the air and said they saw the body of a man apparently lodged in the station wagon's wheel well. "She was driving like 'if you're in my way, you're going to get hit,'" Walker said.

[leftofthedial]

1. why do you hate freedom?

I own a car. I use it for target practice. I just love the little tingle in my nuts when I mow down a target with my thousand pounds of steel and Chinese plastic. I also use it for hunting. Don't flame me! I eat whatever I run over.

You damned liburl freedom hater. You can have my car when you peel my drunken dead ass from the inside of the windshield.

[Posteritatis]

2. LOL! (nt)

[siligut]

7. Ditto! nt

[KittyWampus]

9. that is the funniest shit I've read on DU in ages. .Instant DUzy award material

[leftofthedial]

27. glad you liked it

tee hee!

[MindPilot]

11. Own a car too, but I only use it for self-defense.

In case someone tries to change lanes near me.

But I do support a ban on fully automatic SUVs.

[leftofthedial]

46. even fully automatic SUVs (LOL)

come with child-proof locks

[nam78_two]

21. LOL.nt

[mitchum]

30. LMAO!!! Why do you hate the Second Gear Amendment?

[leftofthedial]

31. "Second Gear Amendment"

:rofl:

[gatorboy]

32. He wants to take away our Right to Bear Car Alarms.

[leftofthedial]

47. freedom hater

a well-regulated ingition being necessary . . .

[trumad]

33. Best post ever!

[jpgray]

34. Awesome

:rofl:

[TahitiNut]

52. All we want is to outlaw the automatics - and the assault vehicles, of course.

You can identify an assault vehicle by the plastic body - clearly not intended for sport drivers at deer crossings.

:hide:

[BikeWriter]

63. If autos are outlawed, only outlaws will have autos!

[baldguy]

3. All drivers are licensed. All cars have serial numbers & are registered.

[Rage for Order]

4. Yes, and it still didn't prevent this tragedy

If a crazy person decides they want to inflict mass carnage, they will find a way to do it.

[hlthe2b]

10. True... far better if she had an AK47 or multiple semi-automatics...

She must have been a gun-hating Librul...

:sarcasm:

[1932]

38. But it probably prevents 1000s of others. That's why they started regulating cars!

Pedestrians and drivers were getting killed in very easy to prevent accidents requiring a very thoughtful set of laws.

[krispos42]

5. False

All drivers IN PUBLIC are licensed. All cars ON PUBLIC ROADS have serial numbers and are registered.

[yella_dawg]

12. Yet cars still kill more people in the US each year

than any other cause of death.


Hmmm...

[MindPilot]

15. Actually no they don't

Off the top of my head numbers, about 50,000 people a year die in motor vehicle accidents. The biggest killer is tobacco at about 400,000.

[yella_dawg]

19. Conceded

I checked my notes. Tobacco is tied with couch-potatoism for first, followed by several other health issues. The highest rate of non-health related death is automobiles.

[nonconformist]

22. And just imagine how many more would die if drivers weren't licensed

And required to learn the laws and prove their driving ability before obtaining one.

And just imagine how many more would die if automobile safety standards weren't regulated.

Just sayin'.

[Bandit]

54. That is not a true statement

Over four hundred thousand deaths are from tobacco related causes and they are the most preventable.

[havocmom]

48. ah, no, actually there ARE people driving on suspended or revoked licenses

There are many repeat offenders and scofflaws who drive, even after pulling enough stupid stunts to officially lose the privilege.

[Bucky]

55. Also, no state in the Union allows their citizens the right to carry concealed cars.

Well, unless you count those little suit case cars.

More photos here. Very groovy.

[Gregorian]

6. Cars don't kill people. Oh wait, they do.

I can't help it. I didn't want to reply to this given my hatred for the car crazed society.

I'll spare the diatribe, but I will mention that as a bicyclist, I fear for my life if I ever share the road. I just moved to an area where I must be on the road for two miles to get to my destination. I've never been so angry as I am today. Just this last week I have had not only close encounters, but someone who literally came across the divided line and into the wrong lane just so they could scare me and flip me off as they went by.

But not only that, but my realtor lost her brother in law to a car three days ago. He was a pedestrian.

The bottom line is, cars have given people more power than they should have. Yes, should have. And that is why America is where it is today. Power corrupts. And we are corrupt because of our totally out of perspective wield of power. Petroleum fueled.

[hlthe2b]

14. I share your biking concerns...

Hell, I'm terrified in some areas to walk my dogs on pedestrian sidewalks--given the way some very aggressive cell-phone talking, rude and distracted narcissistic drivers behave behind the wheel.

I still do, but when you are out in the middle of a cross-walk, WITH the pedestrian light lit, you are an absolute helpless, sitting duck to those buttholes who barely slow to turn right on red, or who try to bluff the ongoing traffic by quickly turning left (without yielding)as soon as the light turns green.

[Art_from_Ark]

62. Wow! Where the heck do you live?

Sounds like it's deep in the heart of bu$h country

[Name removed]

8. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Warpy]

13. Uh, I hope somebody checks her blood sugar

Whatever was wrong, it doesn't sound like she was particularly healthy.

[MindPilot]

16. Whatever the cause turns out to be

she shouldn't have been behind the wheel. Last two paragraphs of the article.

David White, president of the Chicago Shannon Civic Association, said Bell grew up in the neighborhood and is well known. White said he and other residents saw her in the area on Saturday morning, driving erratically and clipping parked cars. He said he confronted her, but she acted like she didn't know him.

"I said, 'Tonya, what are you doing?' She was sweating like a race horse. We tried our best to stop her. ... She was just in a deranged state of mind," White said.

[Warpy]

36. sweating like a race horse......out of her mind

sounds like blood sugar to me...

[theHandpuppet]

40. Crack will do that to you.

The witnesses on the scene had to pry the crack pipe out of her hand. She already had a history of drug-related offenses.

[Warpy]

42. Ah, that part wasn't in the article cited.

Just playing devil's advocate.

[MindPilot]

49. Wow! That War on Drugs is really working!

But clearly we need more laws to keep us safe. There are laws against smoking crack; there are laws against driving while smoking crack; there are laws against driving on closed streets, and there are laws against driving over pedestrians.

BUT THERE ARE NO LAWS AGAINST SMOKING CRACK WHILE DRIVING OVER PEDESTRIANS ON A CLOSED STREET!!!

WHERE ARE THE LAWMAKERS? DON'T THEY CARE ABOUT THE CHILDREN?! WITHOUT A LAW THERE IS NOTHING TO STOP CRACK-ADDLED MOTHERS FROM DRIVING THROUGH STREET FAIRS!

:rant:

[Recursion]

51. Wash Post lead today says she was on crack

At least, the chief Lanier says "she was smoking crack all day", but she only seems to know that from interviewing witnesses not from toxicology

[tjwash]

17. You can have my big assed pickup, when you pry the keys out of my cold, dead fingers

I love my Ford F250. It's a 10 cylinder gas hogging all American dream ride with an extended cab. Man, it's huge. I feel like a God when I insert myself inside it's awesome cage of rock hard steel, finger the keys, and gently coax the its parking brake into the release point and feel the throbbing 10 cylinder engine exploding in a violent orgy of power driving it's 670 HP engine gushing out in a spurt of uncontrolled glorious power.

I'm left spent and quivering for hours afterwards...

[hlthe2b]

20. and I feel that way, darlin....

when I watch you pay to fill that sucker with gas!

I'm left spent and quivering for hours afterwards... :rofl:

[theHandpuppet]

18. I was watching the reports from the local D.C. news this morning...

And witnesses at the scene said the woman was smoking a crack pipe.

May she rot in jail and her daughter find a decent loving home.

[hlthe2b]

24. ohhh.... where to start...

this woman may have destroyed her own life and that of her daughter long before her fateful actions today extended that destruction to so many more innocents... Damn....

[Forkboy]

23. This wouldn't have happened if everyone had a car.

[hlthe2b]

25. if all pedestrians, bikers, strollers

were equipped with rocket launchers? :crazy:

[Forkboy]

26. I see a video game in the making here!

Grand Theft Stroller:Huggies City

[MindPilot]

50. And crack pipes.

If everyone had a crack pipe they could have defended themselves.

[gatorboy]

28. How many car rampage stories have made the news compared to guns?

It's the fair and balanced mantra rearing it's ugly head, I guess. :eyes:

[VTMechEngr]

29. UPDATE Sunday, June 3, 2007; 3:28 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/03/AR2007060300615.html?hpid=topnews

[uppityperson]

35. It's all the fault of car chase video games!

I wonder where she bought the gas? eBay?

[1932]

37. Or at least we could regulate guns the way we regulate cars?

Annual registration, test, age requirements, take them away if your vision goes, etc. etc. etc.?

[theHandpuppet]

39. That would only work if....

.... you could pry enough gun worshippers away from jerking off to their latest issue of Guns and Ammo to have a rational discussion about the registration and regulation of firearms in this country. Even here on DU, the slavish, unquestioning worship of guns seems to strip some folks of their ability to reason. That kind of one-issue extremism would put some of the most fanatical religious cults to shame. I don't even bother trying anymore. You can't reason with the unreasonable.

[slackmaster]

43. You don't need to register your car or even have a driver's license to OWN it

And nobody is going to take it away if your vision goes. You only lose the privilege of operating it in public.

[1932]

61. Do you really need me to explain the gun analogy to that scenario?

Ok, so you don't disagree with the regulation of automobile use in those situations. So, come up with a good way to regulate gun use in the analagous situations.

Let people invest in the property right of gun ownership, but, if they don't meet the licensing criteria, can we do something to prevent them from using them?

[slackmaster]

65. There is an exact analog with regulating guns

In most places you need a special license to carry one concealed.

[devilgrrl]

41. Dang, if someone only had a gun to stop her...

:eyes:

[slackmaster]

44. No, an SUV would have been more appropriate

[devilgrrl]

45. Yeah but is her dick small enough to drive one?

eom

[glitch]

53. Horrible for everyone, but that poor child in the car. nt

[wildflowergardener]

56. not funny

I don't know why many of you do, but I don't find the incident particuly funny - or something to laugh about. Feel free to if you want, but I don't.

Meg

[Morgana LaFey]

57. To be honest?

I've had days when somethin' like that seemed a distinct possibility.











:evilgrin:

[RedCappedBandit]

58. cars dont kill people, women who play GTA kill people!!!

:)

[Beaverhausen]

59. Police: Driver used crack before crash

WASHINGTON - The woman charged with plowing a car through a crowded street festival at speeds up to 70 mph had been "smoking crack all day long," Police Chief Cathy Lanier said, citing statements from the woman and witnesses.

At least 40 people were injured as the car sent people and baby strollers flying, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said Sunday.

Tonya Bell, 30, was preliminarily charged with aggravated assault while armed, with the "armed" designation referring to use of a vehicle. She faced a hearing in District of Columbia Superior Court on Monday.

Authorities believe Bell, of Oxon Hill, Md., was going about 70 mph Saturday evening when she drove through Unifest, a church-sponsored street festival in southeast Washington. She was treated for an ankle injury, police said.

Officials were still waiting for toxicology results.

Bell appeared to be laughing as she drove the car with flattened tires and broken windows into the crowd, said Linda Greene, who saw Bell's car from her porch.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070604/ap_on_re_us/pedestrians_struck;_ylt=Akly.vM0eemB2uerbKFzpNRG2ocA

[EmmitFitzhume]

60. Did anyone else see

that Bell is a temp in Mario Barry's office . . . let the speculation begin as to where she got the crack.

[Nikki Stone1]

64. Source? (It wasn't in the Yahoo articles)

Thanks