Fairfax Virginia Car Accident Prompts Lawmakers to Introduce "Ashley's Law"

On February 13, 2008 Ashley McIntosh died from injuries she suffered when a Police Cruiser entered an intersection on Route 1 in Fairfax County with its emergency lights on but without its siren. In many states it is the law that emergency vehicles such as Police Cruisers responding to emergencies must have both their emergency lights and sirens on in order to proceed lawfully through a red light.

Virginia allows officers to use lights and sirens but only as may be reasonably necessary. As a result of this provision, although Fairfax officer Amanda Perry was charged with reckless driving for entering the intersection that fateful day when Ashley McIntosh was killed, she was found not guilty by a substitute judge from Stafford County.

Since that time, there have been many questions raised as to why Virginia would make it optional for a Police Officer to use all his emergency equipment when disregarding traffic laws. While the policy of Fairfax County is to have its officers use both lights and sirens, the state provision allows for the “reasonably necessary” loophole. Having both light and sirens functioning, provides valuable information to other drivers that they need to yield to the authorities, and get out of their way. In Fairfax, Alexandria and Arlington, Loudoun and Prince William Counties, the congestion that is almost always present on the roads requires that this law be changed.

Thankfully the surviving family of Ashley McIntosh have pushed to get “Ashley’s Law” introduced to the Virginia Legislature. Toddy Puller (D-Fairfax), and David Englin (D-Alexandria), will be introducing this bill to the legislature this session. It is time for Virginia to join the majority of states, and require the use of emergency lights and sirens without exception. This is too simple a proposition for our legislature to ignore. Please contact your state legislators and tell them that they should support “Ashley’s Law”.

Related posts:

1. Fairfax Virginia Motorcycle-Car accident – $35,000 Settlement
2. Alexandria Car Accident Lawyers – Alexandria Car Accident Statistics
3. 5 Things to do After an Auto accident.
4. Top 5 Mature Driver Actions Contributing to Crashes
5. Fairfax Workers' Comp Lawyers – Fairfax Workers Comp Accidents

Tags: Ashley McIntosh, Ashley's law, Fairfax Car Accident, Fairfax car Accident lawyers

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 11:23 am and is filed under Blog, Library, Personal Injury. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.