Death came for Chuck Stoecker in a beautiful place.
Stoecker died Nov. 15 amid the rolling farm fields of northern Baltimore County in a manner far too common in Maryland and the United States.
The 61-year-old White Hall man was killed in a car crash. The instrument of his death was a speeding Dodge Caravan driven by a 17-year-old ice hockey star who failed to stay in his lane and hit Stoecker almost head-on. The teen survived without serious injuries.
Stoecker's death wasn't big news. It rated three paragraphs on the inside pages of this section. How much attention can you give to one fatal crash when more than 600 people die every year on Maryland roads?
He did get a fine write-up in an obituary a few days later. The article told the story of a man who was a small farmer, a tax professional, an ardent Republican, a University of Maryland alumnus. It said he left a wife of 33 years and four children.
Were it not for his wife, Weida, Chuck Stoecker's death would be a closed chapter. He would be fading into the same obscurity as all the other highway homicide victims we forget each year.
But Weida Stoecker isn't letting go easily. She's speaking out about the devastation the loss has brought on her family. She's talking about coming upon an accident scene near her home and recognizing the Ford Taurus that Chuck drove. She's talking about the moment she was told by a paramedic, "Your husband has passed."
"There's an empty place next to me wherever I go," she said.
Stoecker told her story at a recent news conference at the State Fairgrounds in Timonium at which police announced a crackdown on aggressive driving. At one point, she addressed her remarks to the teenage driver, who was not there.
"I died on Nov. 15, 2007, when you killed my husband, Charles George Stoecker," she said.
Based on what she's heard about the crash, Weida Stoecker considers her husband and her family to be victims of an aggressive driver. But a Baltimore County police investigation report paints a more mundane picture: An inexperienced driver, going too fast on wet pavement, lost control on a curve, crossed the double yellow line and ended a man's life.
The road itself was posted at 45 mph but the curve has a warning sign advising drivers to hold their speed to 40. The young man later told investigators he thought he was going about 50 mph.
