Texting-driving accidents jump

Andrew and Jenna Stratmeyer, like many young people, do their share of text-messaging - just not when they're behind the wheel of a car.

That's because the siblings from Hartford have seen - and felt - the damage that can be done by a driver distracted by a cell phone.

The two were injured in July 2007 in a four-car crash on Highway 38. Jeffery Vierick, who was 17 at the time, was checking text messages when he rear-ended Jenna Stratmeyer's Chevy Cavalier with his Dodge pickup near Buffalo Ridge. He was cited for careless driving.
Stories such as that of the Stratmeyers are becoming more common. The number of accidents in South Dakota that authorities blame on drivers who are distracted by cell phone use has jumped 60 percent in the four years since the Department of Highway Safety began collecting such data.

In 2004, the number of accidents tied to cell phone use was 82. By 2008, it had reached 138.

But those numbers don't tell the whole story, officials say. For an officer responding to an accident to identify cell phone use as a contributing factor, the driver who used the phone usually must report it, Sioux Falls Police Chief Doug Barthel said.

"It's difficult to say how accurate those numbers can be," Barthel said. "Unless there's admission, there's no way to know."

While eyewitnesses might say a driver was using a cell phone, such allegations are difficult to prove unless that driver's cell phone records are subpoenaed.

And because the department rarely would do that, Barthel said, the reported number of cell phone-related accidents probably is lower than the actual number.

Andrew Stratmeyer, 20, was driving his sister's car when the accident happened. It took a year for him to recover from two chipped vertebrae. Jenna Stratmeyer, 23, couldn't work for four months and endured months of physical therapy in her recovery from broken ribs, hip damage and bleeding in her lungs and brain.

Andrew Stratmeyer said he sometimes talks on his cell phone while he drives, but he never checks text messages. The accident caused his sister to rethink text messaging, too.

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Orange Line Train Kills Man in Another Case Of Apparent Suicide

A man was struck and killed Wednesday morning by a Metro train entering the West Falls Church-VT/UVA station, at least the fifth time a person has intentionally stepped in front of a train since the beginning of June, a Metro official said.

"It's highly unusual," spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said.

The six-car Orange Line train was headed in the direction of New Carrollton when the incident happened at 11:18 a.m.

Metro identified the victim as Sangjin Lee, 45, of Arlington County. Virginia's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is investigating.

Corine Hagan, who lives in Haymarket, was on the first car of the train that hit the man Wednesday. She said that the train was about halfway from the end of the platform when she heard a loud thud and that the train stopped immediately.

"You just never hear anything like that," she said. "It sounded like a large bird hitting the train."

Hagan said two transit workers in the lead car immediately told passengers to clear out.

Trains traveling in both directions shared a track for nearly three hours, but regular service resumed at 2 p.m., Metro said. Transit Police, aided by the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, cordoned off a platform during that time.

The apparent suicide was another frustrating situation for Metro, which is under heightened scrutiny after the June 22 Red Line crash, which killed nine people and injured 80, and other incidents this summer.

On Sunday night, Metro spotter Michael Nash was struck and killed by maintenance equipment on an Orange Line track between the Dunn Loring-Merrifield and Vienna/Fairfax-GMU stations, not far from Wednesday's accident.

This was the sixth apparent suicide in which a person was struck by a Metro train since March, Farbstein said. A man struck by a Red Line train on July 25 survived.

"There's not really much the system can do about that kind of accident," said Arlington resident Fernando Pena, 35, before boarding an Orange Line train at the Court House Station.

Passenger Terriesa Jones, 42, of Upper Marlboro was puzzled by the recent spate of Metro incidents. "For the Metro not to have any incidents for 20 years, it makes me wonder if some sabotage is going on," Jones said, "because everything seems to be going wacko all of a sudden."

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