Reckless Driving

25 years ago:Boasting a 41-percent increase in sales in 1973, Ben Grubbs has gotten an increase in his gasoline allocation over the amount initially set aside for him based on 1972 sales at Eldersburg, before Mr. Grubbs took over as manager. Part of that increase arrived Wednesday morning. Word spread quickly that the station was pumping from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. When Mr. Grubbs closed the pumps at 1 p.m., 12,000 gallons of gas were gone and the "regular" tank was dry. That's the most Mr. Grubbs has ever sold in a day. Sundays, he used to sell 8,000 gallons.

Every time Lisa and Tim Napoli read the police report, they get angrier.Within its 29 neatly typed pages is the story of how their 19-year-old son, Michael, was killed April 24 when his car was struck head-on in Harford County by a car driven by a 16-year-old.Out of their grief -- and their frustration that no criminal charges have been filed -- they have begun a campaign to ensure that someone is held accountable for their son's death.In doing so, they have trained a spotlight on a problem familiar to prosecutors statewide: How to balance a grieving family's desire for justice against state laws that make it difficult to bring charges, particularly when drugs and alcohol aren't involved.

A Sykesville woman who was driving the car in which her boyfriend was killed in May was arrested on a criminal warrant specifying 15 charges, including manslaughter, homicide by motor vehicle by driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and driving while intoxicated.Donna F. Cianci of the 4800 block of Cherry Tree Lane was freed on $25,000 bond Sunday.According to court and police records, Cianci, 35, was driving a 1987 Ford Thunderbird north on Woodbine Road in Woodbine at 2: 17 a.m. May 5 when the car skidded on wet pavement south of Buckhorn Road and crashed into a porch and two trees.

ONE THING I've learned in over 10 years of driving cabs and limousines is that you can't always do what your passengers want, even if those passengers are as famous as Princess Diana and her super-rich boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed.When the people in the back of the car order you to act in an illegal or dangerous manner, you must refuse.My heart goes out to Henri Paul, a security man for Mr. Fayed, who was pressed into service to drive his boss and Diana after he'd been drinking.Mr. Paul's first mistake was not having the strength to say, ''I can't do it tonight.

A Baltimore County grand jury has handed up a 10-count indictment against Raymond Charles Haney, driver of the car that crashed into a Woodlawn bus stop in July, killing a mother and four young children. Mr. Haney was charged with five counts automobile manslaughter and with traffic violations that include speeding, negligent and reckless driving, and making an unsafe lane change.Article, Page 1C

A Pasadena man charged with driving the car that struck and killed an 11-year-old girl in the spring was found dead of an apparent drug overdose Wednesday in a house he was helping to build, county police said.The body of Mark Alan Hepburn, 32, of the 600 block of 203rd St. was found shortly before 8 a.m. a few doors away from his home. Mr. Hepburn was a subcontractor for the new house, police said.Officer J. T. Collins found a syringe, heroin and other drug paraphernalia near Mr. Hepburn's body, police said.

A 22-year-old Bel Air man was acquitted of automobile manslaughter but drew a 60-day jail sentence for driving under the influence of alcohol in a car crash that killed his best friend.Thomas Lee Greenfield of the 500 block of Westview Road was 20 at the time of the accident in which 19-year-old Mark Eric Adams died on a rural section of Ruffs Mill Road.Mr. Adams had been a passenger in Mr. Greenfield's 1979 Corvette when it slammed into a telephone pole after the two men had left a 1993 New Year's Eve party.

A few years ago, Christian Herrera loved to grab a steering wheel and imagine the freedom of the open road."I remember my grandmother's Oldsmobile," Christian's friend, Kelly Matthews, 17, recalled yesterday. "We used to sit in there and just dream about driving."The boys' dream was just a hazy nightmare yesterday as hundreds of mourners -- Christian's family and his friends -- stood on the damp grass at Crest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Marriottsville.The 16-year-old Ellicott City youth was a popular junior at Glenelg High School.

A week after Henry Nutter's mother testified in defense of the man who was driving the car in which her son died, the young man's father sued the drivers of both cars involved in the accident for $1 million each.Robert L. Nutter filed the suit yesterday in Circuit Court, charging that Rodney L. Truman, 19, of Crownsville, and Michele M. Fredericks, 20, were "careless, reckless and negligent" as they raced down St. Stephens Church Road the night of Aug. 26, 1991.Henry Nutter, 19, was a passenger in Truman's car when it crossed the center line, raced next to Ms. Fredericks' car, then skidded off the right side of the road and hit a tree about 11:45 p.m., shortly after all three had left a beer party in a woods off St. Stephens Church Road.

Lester Franklin Wagner, of Bowleys Quarters, has four driver's licenses -- two from Maryland, one from Virginia and one from Florida. They're all suspended.And Wagner, 39, was driving with those four suspended licenses Aug. 19, when his car struck Ava Mae Marr, who was walking in the eastbound lane of Eastern Boulevard near Stevens Road.Wagner drove a couple of blocks, pulled into a convenience store and made a phone call. "I just run over somebody," a witness heard him say into the phone.

A 24-year-old Columbia man with a history of reckless driving and drug convictions was sentenced to five years in prison Monday for his part in a fatal accident last November that killed his best friend. Alexander Camorali of the 5400 block of Half Flight Garth pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while under the influence of alcohol after initially being charged with vehicular manslaughter. After spending part of the night at a Baltimore go-go bar, Camorali was driving on Harpers Farm Road when his truck went out of control, smashed into a tree and knocked down a street light.

A Carroll County judge has stepped aside from hearing traffic charges against a man who went to prison for his role in a fatal 1998 crash and went on to receive a half-dozen speeding tickets in the years since his release. Judge Marc C. Rasinsky recused himself Wednesday in the District Court trial of Frederick Henry Hensen Jr., citing an article Sunday in The Baltimore Sun on Hensen's history of speeding and other driving violations. Hensen got tickets before and after his involvement in the crash that killed middle school teacher Geraldine Wu. Hensen was convicted of manslaughter by automobile in 1999, along with another man who participated in a road race on Route 140 that ended in the crash that killed Wu. A third man pleaded guilty in 1998.

If you're a speed-happy Marylander who occasionally drives into Virginia, you'd better leave your lead foot on this side of the Potomac. Unlike in Maryland, where cotton-candy traffic laws virtually invite extreme speeding, Virginia takes such behavior seriously. Under the laws of the commonwealth, exceeding the speed limit by 20 mph or more is classified as reckless driving. Going 80 mph or more, no matter what the speed limit, is also reckless driving. That's a Class 1 misdemeanor under Virginia law, punishable by a jail term of up to a year and a fine of $2,500.

The head of Maryland's Motor Vehicle Administration calls Frederick Henry Hensen Jr. "a menace to highway safety." The prosecutor who put him in jail says he has no business having a driver's license. But nothing, it seems, can keep Hensen off the road. In 1999, Hensen, then 22, was convicted in Carroll County Circuit Court of manslaughter by automobile in the death of Geraldine "Geri" Lane Wu. A jury found that a road race on Route 140 involving Hensen and two other drivers led to the crash that killed the popular middle school teacher and seriously injured her daughter.

Howard County North Laurel Seven men charged in prostitution sting Howard County police arrested seven men Thursday on charges of solicitation of prostitution after setting up a sting targeting an area of North Laurel in the wake of residents' complaints. Plain-clothed female officers were approached on U.S. 1 and offered money for sex, police said. Tyeesha Dixon Baltimore County Towson Event Saturday to focus on housing The county will hold its second Housing Resource Day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Goucher College in Towson to provide residents with house-buying information and guidance.

Imagine that you're trying to do the right thing - you see a driver behaving badly, so you speed up to try to read the car's license plate. But inadvertently, you squeeze another car off the road, injuring the passengers. Are you guilty of reckless driving and leaving the scene of the crime? That, in a nutshell, is the question that teams of Howard County high school students have been arguing during a series of mock trials held during the past several months. Students played the part of defense lawyers, prosecutors, witnesses and defendants, taking their cases to real courtrooms, where they played out the trial in front of real lawyers and judges.

Aggressive driving is the No. 1 concern of Maryland motorists, according to AAA. So after last week's column about how many traffic tickets were being given out for various violations in Maryland, Mike Agetstine of Pikesville wanted to know how many were being issued for that offense. Not many. Like about a dozen other states, Maryland has an aggressive-driving statute - passed by the General Assembly in 2001. According to law enforcement officers, it's been a bust - and the numbers bear them out. In 2006, police statewide gave out 935 tickets for the offense - compared with 5,693 for the more tried-and-true charge of reckless driving.

The lawyer for Steve McNair is confident that the Ravens quarterback's court case will be dismissed today. McNair is scheduled to appear in Nashville, Tenn., on a driving under the influence by consent charge along with his brother-in-law, Jamie Cartwright, who was arrested on a DUI charge. "I think there is a very good chance to get it worked out as far as the driver is concerned," said Roger May, McNair's lawyer. "If that occurs, then Mr. McNair's case will be dismissed." It appeared that McNair's case would be dropped May 30. A clerk for the criminal court in Nashville announced that McNair's DUI by consent charge had been dismissed and that the DUI charge against his brother-in-law had been reduced to reckless driving.

LOS ANGELES -- Paris Hilton was sent screaming and crying back to jail yesterday after a judge ruled that she must serve out her sentence behind bars rather than in the comfort of her Hollywood Hills home. As she was led away to jail for a parole violation, the disheveled heiress wailed, "Mom, Mom! It's not right!" Her journey to the courthouse wasn't quite the scene of police chasing O.J. Simpson, but Hilton was part of the official caravan that garnered live television coverage. A crying Hilton sat in the back seat of a patrol car, wearing handcuffs and sweats.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Ravens quarterback Steve McNair's court appearance for a charge related to driving under the influence has been delayed until July 10 after it seemed the case would be dismissed. "We thought we had a conclusion," McNair's lawyer, Roger May, said outside the courtroom. "Apparently, someone in the [district attorney's] office wants to review the file. Obviously, I'm disappointed." A clerk for the criminal court in Nashville told a reporter after yesterday's pretrial hearing that McNair's DUI by consent charge had been dismissed and that the DUI charge against his brother-in-law, Jamie Cartwright, had been reduced to reckless driving.