By Kathleen Brady Shea, Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania)
A fatal accident over the weekend has reignited controversy over the use of radar by local police departments.
West Goshen Township Police Chief Michael J. Carroll said yesterday that radar is crucial to preventing the kind of four-vehicle crash that claimed two lives on Saturday evening.
State Rep. Richard Allen Geist (R., Blair), who heads the House Transportation Committee, said reworking state law to allow municipal police departments to use radar is not as simple as it sounds. The Pennsylvania State Police is the only agency authorized to use it now.
“These accidents are preventable,” Carroll said. “Lawmakers need to stop putting us at a disadvantage.”
Carroll said Jason Mertl, 21, of West Chester, was traveling south on Route 202 at an “excessive speed” when he lost control of his 1994 Pontiac at about 6:45 p.m. Mertl’s car was rolling over when it struck the median, Carroll said.
Mertl, who was killed, was ejected before his car went airborne. The car landed in the northbound lanes, where it struck the roof of a 2004 Honda driven by Nagendranath Maley, 47, of Exton, who was also killed. Mertl’s car then hit a 2003 Hyundai driven by Robert Franzosa, 55, of Glen Mills, and a SEPTA paratransit bus, according to police.
West Goshen Township Police Sgt. William Camlin said seven people were taken to area hospitals: Maley’s wife Leslie, 50, and the couple’s 13-year-old daughter; Mertl’s passenger, Michael Kyle Bodnar, 18, of Phoenixville; Franzosa, his wife, Nancy, and their 14-year-old son; and Leroy Davis, 68, of Exton, the driver of the SEPTA bus, which carried no passengers.
Davis and Robert Franzosa were both treated and released, Camlin said.
Although Mertl was ejected, police believe he was wearing a seatbelt.
“It appeared to have been ripped out as a result of the force,” Camlin said.
Carroll said the investigation, which will include a toxicology report, is continuing. Many of the interviews have been delayed by the victims’ medical conditions, none of which is life-threatening, he said.
“We have identified a problem with speeding on 202, and the legislature will not allow us to use the proper tools,” Carroll said.
Local departments use stop watches or they tail drivers - procedures that lack efficiency, Carroll said.
“We’ve been trying to get radar for 45 years,” he said. “It’s the most effective way to prevent speeding.”
Carroll, who served a term as president of the Pennsylvania Police Chiefs Association, said the latest version of a bill that would expand the use of radar to municipal police officers stalled in Geist’s House Transportation Committee.
“The House just refuses to pass the bill,” Carroll said. “And the reasons they give are malarkey.”
Carroll said the bill has been amended repeatedly to address concerns such as the fear that departments could rake in fine money or fail to train officers properly.
“I think some lawmakers just don’t want to get picked up for speeding,” Carroll said.
Rep. Stephen E. Barrar (R., Delaware), a supporter of the bill, whose district includes a portion of Chester County, said he believes many lawmakers have unfounded fears of abuse.
“I think we need to give police officers the right equipment” to combat speeding, Barrar said.
Geist said the bill, which officially dies today, will be revised and reintroduced in January. He said he was guardedly optimistic that a trial-run program could be established.
“There’s resistance to it,” Geist said. Lawmakers still harbor doubts about the reliability of radar guns in the hands of anyone but the state police, he said.
Carroll estimated that 90 percent of the crashes that occur on the portion of Route 202 that snakes through West Goshen Township - approximately 50 a year - can be attributed to speeding.
“The people in the northbound lanes were minding their own business,” Carroll said of Saturday’s accident. “It’s tragic that we can’t fix this problem.”