On Saturday night, August 2, 78-year-old D.C. Council member Marion Barry was involved in a wrong-way crash that sent him to the hospital and had authorities impound his car for unpaid traffic tickets dating from 2012. Barry is a diabetic and reportedly experienced a “hypoglycemic attack” before becoming disoriented and driving into oncoming traffic.
He was cited by the police for driving on the wrong side of the street, driving an unregistered vehicle and failure to have insurance. The person riding in the vehicle he hit complained of neck pain and was also sent to the hospital.
After the crash, it was found that Barry had $2,824 in fines on his 2002 Jaguar, which denotes two years’ worth of traffic violations. What’s amazing is that the Jaguar had never been booted in those two years when boot crews are required to do so with just two outstanding tickets over 60 days old. A spokesperson for the Department of Motor Vehicles said that it’s possible that Barry’s car had not been booted earlier because all of the tickets were issued beyond the official working hours of boot crews, which are from 6 AM to 2:30 PM.
Barry’s tickets cover an assortment of traffic offenses, including failure to display current tags, speeding and illegal parking. The oldest ticket dates back to February 12, while the most recent one was issued Thursday, July 31 for parking too close to a fire hydrant.
Before his Saturday night accident, Marion Barry had racked up $2,800 worth of tickets. http://t.co/bBKN7GJyi8 pic.twitter.com/Q3Bq07BauO
— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) August 5, 2014
Some have noted that ordinary citizens wouldn’t have gotten off the hook as easily as the D.C. Council member did. However, Barry’s vehicle was finally impounded, and by Tuesday, all his outstanding tickets had been paid. In order to retrieve his car from the compound, Barry will also have to ensure that vehicle registration and tags for his 2002 Jaguar are up to date.
Image via Wikimedia Commons