The Washington Post - 21.10.2019

MONDAY, OCTOBER 21 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE B5

curred; a public meeting is sched-

uled for Monday. As part of the

study, the department is consid-

ering changes to traffic signal

timing, turn restrictions and oth-

er pedestrian improvements.

Roessler said the investigation

into Sunday’s crash will deter-

mine the lighting conditions at

the intersection as well as condi-

tion of the pedestrian walk signs

and the speed of the cruiser; it

will also include a forensic medi-

cal examination.

The officer involved in the

crash has been assigned to ad-

ministrative duties pending the

investigation, Roessler said, and

the results will be sent to the

Fairfax County commonwealth’s

attorney’s office for review.

“All of us in the D.C. area are

trying to combat the pedestrian

crashes and the fatalities, which

is very unfortunate in our urban-

izing area,” Roessler said. “This is

just horrible.... We have an indi-

vidual that has died. It is traumat-

ic. I pray for the victim, their

family, this officer.”

[email protected]

decade, according to data com-

piled by The Washington Post.

Fairfax County traffic-safety

advocates said Sunday’s crash

highlights the safety concerns

along a portion of highway that is

known to have poor lighting and

where cars are traveling at high

speeds and pedestrians are forced

to cross eight lanes of traffic.

“Unacceptable!” tweeted

Shawn Newman of the Fairfax

Alliance for Better Bicycling.

“This section of Arlington

Boulevard is designed for 50+

mph speeds with 8 crossing lanes

and minimal light through a

dense residential and commer-

cial area,” Newman tweeted using

the group’s handle.

In a separate message directed

at the Virginia Department of

Transportation, the group tweet-

ed: “Stop just telling people to

slow down, build the roads safer.”

The Virginia Department of

Transportation is conducting a

study of a segment of Route 50

between Wilson Boulevard and

Jaguar Trail, including the inter-

section where Sunday’s crash oc-

county — where 14 pedestrians

have been killed in traffic crashes

so far this year — and about that

section of Arlington Boulevard in

particular, which has a history of

tragedies involving pedestrians.

A 36-year-old woman was

struck and killed in the area just

over a year ago.

The incident also is the latest of

several fatal crashes this month

involving pedestrians in the

Washington region. An unidenti-

fied man was killed in a hit-and-

run crash in Laurel on Oct. 12. A

day later, a 67-year-old Takoma

Park man was killed when he was

struck by two vehicles at an inter-

section in the Silver Spring area of

Montgomery County. And, last

Monday, a 54-year-old Suitland

woman was killed in a hit-and-

run in Prince George’s County.

The number of pedestrians fa-

talities in the region has been on

the rise in recent years. Pedestri-

ans accounted for one-third of the

290 traffic deaths in the greater

Washington area last year — their

largest proportion of the region’s

road fatalities in more than a

crash, Roessler said. The posted

speed in the area is 45 mph.

Police were also seeking the

public’s help in identifying the

victim, described as a Hispanic

man between the ages of 20 and

40 wearing dark clothing.

Roessler said the cruiser’s in-

car video system shows the officer

was driving through a green light,

eastbound on Arlington Boule-

vard approaching the intersec-

tion of Graham Road, when he

struck the man in the left lane.

The officer got out of the cruiser

to aid the victim until emergency

personnel arrived, Roessler said.

Police said the pedestrian was

taken to a hospital, where he was

pronounced dead.

The crash revived concerns

about pedestrian safety in the

through the intersection, and

that the pedestrian unfortunately

was crossing against the ‘don’t

walk’ sign,” Roessler said at a

Sunday afternoon news confer-

ence.

The area is a busy commercial

corridor that has multiple travel

lanes and has come to be known

as a dangerous stretch for pedes-

trians.

The incident closed three lanes

of the highway for several hours.

Roessler said the officer, identi-

fied only as someone with more

than four years of law enforce-

ment experience, was responding

to a call for service for disorderly

subjects.

Police on Sunday were still try-

ing to determine the actual speed

of the cruiser at the time of the

BY LUZ LAZO

A Fairfax County police officer
responding to a call struck and
killed a pedestrian in the Falls
Church area early Sunday, police
said.
The officer was driving in the
eastbound lanes of Arlington
Boulevard (Route 50), approach-
ing Graham Road when he struck
a man at a crosswalk about
12:15 a.m., according to police.
There is no indication that the
officer had activated the lights or
siren of his marked cruiser, but he
did have a green light, according
to Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler
Jr.
“The best information we have
right now is the officer did have a
green light, was proceeding

with majorities of Democrats,

Republicans and independents

all opposed.

“You’re talking about people

who have been on their own,”

said Polly Easton of Baltimore

County. “They have their unique

needs and wants. I don’t think

it’s fair to just lump them in with

someone else and say, ‘Now

we’ve fixed the problem.’ ”

Other findings from the poll

include:


58 percent of Marylanders

support making Puerto Rico a

separate state, a figure that is

slightly lower than 66 percent in

the United States overall in the

recent national Gallup poll.


76 percent of Marylanders

support giving the District a full

voting member in the U.S.

House of Representatives. Re-

publicans favor this option by 54

percent to 38 percent. Support

rises to 76 percent among inde-

pendents and 90 percent for

Democrats.


Support for D.C. statehood

varies depending on arguments

for and against. The survey

asked Marylanders to react to

five common arguments for why

the District should or should not

become a separate state:

At the high end, when given

the argument that D.C. residents

pay federal taxes, 67 percent of

Marylanders said they favor the

District becoming a state.

At the low end, 41 percent

supported D.C. statehood after

being told “some D.C. elected

officials have had corruption

scandals in recent years.”

The prospect of Democrats

gaining two Senate seats sharp-

ens partisan divisions on the

issue. Democratic support for

statehood grows to 87 percent,

up 24 points from their support

of statehood overall, while Re-

publican support drops from

31 percent to 17 percent.

The poll was conducted by

The Post and the University of

Maryland’s Center for Democra-

cy and Civic Engagement on

Oct. 9-14 among a random sam-

ple of 860 residents of Mary-

land. Interviews were conduct-

ed by live interviewers, and 60

percent were interviewed on

cellphones and 40 percent on

landlines. Overall results have a

margin of sampling error of plus

or minus 4.5 percentage points.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Emily Guskin contributed to this

report.

supported statehood to give D.C.
residents full representation in
Congress. At present, they can
vote for president but have no
senators and only a nonvoting
delegate in the House of Repre-
sentatives. They also noted that
the District has more residents
than Wyoming and Vermont.
“It’s pretty ridiculous that it
has a larger population than two
states, with no representation,”
said Hannah Walter, who lives in
Montgomery County.
“When you’re closer to it, and
you see how [lack of representa-
tion] has impacted things like
education in the District, and
legalization of marijuana and
the budget... [statehood] is not
this far-fetched, crazy idea. It’s
more of a necessity,” she said.
Ivanlee Jackson, who lives in
Prince George’s, said D.C. resi-
dents deserve congressional
representation because they pay
federal taxes. “It doesn’t make
any sense... if the Constitution
means anything,” Jackson said.
“What was ‘no taxation without
representation’?”
Statehood opponents, howev-
er, expressed concern about
adding two Democratic senators
and about corruption scandals
among some D.C. elected offi-
cials in recent years.
“I’m pretty moderate, but I
assume that the [District] sena-
tors would be probably very
liberal,” said Etzion Brand, who
lives in Baltimore City.
“Why change something that
isn’t broken?” said Esequiel Cas-
tillo of Howard County. He add-
ed that he was concerned that
the District was “kind of like a
portal for corruption,” referring
to local officials there.
Self-identified Democrats in
Maryland support statehood by
63 percent to 30 percent. Those
results are reversed for Republi-
cans, with 31 percent in favor
and 59 percent opposed. Inde-
pendents favor statehood by 50
percent to 41 percent.
The Gallup national poll in
June found lower support
among each partisan group,
peaking at 39 percent of Demo-
crats and falling to 15 percent of
Republicans.
The Post-U. Md. poll finds
Marylanders oppose making the
District a new county in their
state, a plan called “retro-
cession,” by 57 percent to 36 per-
cent. There is little variation
depending on political party,

POLL FROM B1

Poll: Marylanders narrowly favor D.C. statehood, but not Md. county status

MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST

Statehood supporters attend a rally kicking off D.C. Statehood Week with a 51-star flag salute along Pennsylvania Avenue last month.

POLL Post-U. Md. poll

Marylanders are far more supportive of D.C. statehood than the

country as a whole

Q: Would you favor or oppose making Washington, D.C. a separate state?

Source: Maryland data: Oct. 9-14, 2019, Washington Post-University of Maryland poll of 860

state residents with an error margin of +/- 4.5 percentage points. National poll: June 19-30,

2019, Gallup poll of 1,018 adults nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.

EMILY GUSKIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

0 20 40 60

Favor

Maryland adults

51%

Oppose 40

No opinion 9

Favor

National adults

29%

Oppose 64

No opinion 8

POLL Post-U. Md. poll

More Maryland residents support giving D.C. a vote in Congress

but do not support D.C. retrocessing into Maryland

Q: As you may know, Washington, D.C. has a delegate in Congress, but that

person is not allowed to vote on laws. Would you support or oppose new

legislation giving D.C. a full voting member in the U.S. House of

Representatives? Q: Another proposal is for D.C. to change from being an

independent district to a new county in Maryland. Would you support or oppose

this proposal?

Source: Oct. 9-14, 2019, Washington Post-University of Maryland poll of 860 state residents

with an error margin of +/- 4.5 percentage points.

EMILY GUSKIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

0 20 40 60

Support 76%

Oppose 20

No opinion 4

Support 36%

Oppose 57

No opinion 7

Give D.C. a full-voting member of Congress

Make D.C. a new county in Maryland

Staying dry in the District

A pedestrian is prepared for the weather on the escalator out of the

Smithsonian Metro station in Southwest Washington on a rainy

Sunday. The remnants of Tropical Storm Nestor drenched large

parts of the Mid-Atlantic region over the weekend, though it paled in

comparison to the extreme weather that battered Florida.

MATT MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

VIRGINIA

O∞cer responding to call fatally hits

man on road cited for safety concerns