One of the most incorruptible attributes of the human condition is our immutable desire to honor life in times of death. Never before has this been more apparent to me than it has been this week, when dozens of average citizens expressed their collective disdain over a bout of disrespectful and irresponsible coverage of the tragic deaths of Lt. Commander Denis Tri and Tricia Goken.
As most readers of Southern Maryland Online know by now, Denis and Trish were killed on Saturday, January 29, when, according to the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office, Denis lost control of his 1996 Lexus on the ice covered roadway, crossed the center line, and was struck by a 1986 Dodge pickup.
As all responsible journalists tend to do, the editors of SMO reported the facts of the case as related by the sheriff’s office, noting, “The primary cause of the accident was icy roads. Speed or alcohol was not a contributing factor in the accident.” Likewise, the Hollywood (Md.) Volunteer Fire Department, Company 7, website states that its emergency rescue squad “arrived on location at 2213 hours establishing the Hollywood command and advised that there were dangerous road conditions due to the weather.”
However, Ken Rossignol, publisher of St. Mary’s Today, wrote that this accident occurred because Denis was “going too fast,” which caused him to “[lose] control of his vehicle and [cross] the center line of the highway into the path of a pickup truck.”
Notice that Rossignol mentions nowhere that Denis encountered ice on the roadway, which clearly caused him to lose control of his vehicle; he merely insinuates that Denis was driving irresponsibly, akin to a drunken teenager careening recklessly down the highway.
This intentional oversight by Rossignol drew the ire of many local and out-of-state residents, some of whom Rossignol simply dismisses by assuming readers are attempting to “change [his] accurate report to attempt to soothe [their] grief.”
On the contrary, an “accurate report” would have included the tiny little fact that an icy roadway caused Denis to cross the center lane.
What Rossignol fails to understand is that readers of his rag aren’t expressing their dissatisfaction with his coverage simply to slake their grief over the loss of Denis and Trish. Indeed, many readers never even have met them. They’re outraged because his provocative and disparaging comments are an affront to responsible journalism, which readers are entitled to expect, as well as standards of decency.
However, readers get a true glimpse of Ken Rossignol’s psyche and maturity level after examining some of his responses to related letters to the editor (to which, in these instances, he does have the right to respond editorially).
After Nancy Beebe of Chicago objected to Rossignol’s “preachy responses” (her words) to his readers and his assumption that “the only safe speed under such conditions is about 15 to 20,” he responds:
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Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn if you were offended by preachy responses. Going over 15 to 20 on an ice covered road is not only dangerous but suicidal. It is a fact, not conjecture, that the death of two people on our highway on Saturday night took place due to the driver going too fast for the weather conditions. Your decision to stick your head somewhere which hinders clear thinking is nothing that any rational person can do anything about. This is America and you have the right to be irrational. Nothing has been reported to impugn the character of the deceased. Nothing. The reconstructionist knows exactly what caused the crash and his written investigation shows that cause. It's a public record, seek and learn. While you may crave sensational reporting in Chicago, we don't have to invent sensation here in Southern Maryland. [emphasis added]
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Mr. Rossignol is correct. It’s what he didn’t report that “[impugned] the character of the deceased.” He continually claims that Denis Tri was driving too fast for the weather conditions, yet he never once mentions that in his “report.” That in itself sensationalizes the reporting.
But since it seems we’ve gone from lamenting an incident of such misfortune to playing the “What if?” game and ridiculously speculating as to what exact speed could have prevented the deaths of Denis and Trish, let’s consider some worthwhile facts.
For starters, it is indeed true that Denis was ultimately driving too fast for the weather conditions. However, that Ken Rossignol states this in a “news report” while failing to mention the weather conditions at all implies that Denis ipso facto is solely to blame for the accident. Hence the unfair implication that Denis was driving irresponsibly. And of course, there is no speculation as to the speed of the Dodge truck (which, it goes without saying, is much heavier than a Lexus sportscar).
What is more, Rossignol demonstrates ignorance on stilts by saying Denis was “going too fast” when it’s common knowledge that even 10 mph is too fast if ice forces you off the road. Indeed, Rossignol has no idea how fast Denis was even driving in the first place, as he admits in a response to a reader, “There are no skid marks on ice, that is the problem, a lack of traction.”
Furthermore, Rossignol writes in another response that “A prudent decision for anyone would be to first, stay off the roads and second, to go slow.” Wow, there’s nothing like the uncanny ability to predict the past, eh Ken? I suppose Denis and Trish could have packed some camping gear and slept in the restaurant parking lot Saturday night instead of driving home. You know what? I suppose they could have done many things differently that night, not least deciding to drive three minutes from their house on Solomons to China Harbor, where we had earlier in the day invited them to join us for dinner.
But they didn’t. They decided to go to a nice dinner in Leonardtown and head home for the night around 10:00 p.m. Interestingly, they were followed by Derek Dean, a 16-year-old who witnessed the entire incident and impressively leapt immediately from his vehicle to assist Denis and Trish and call 911. If it weren’t for his quick response, the Hollywood rescue squad probably wouldn’t have been able to arrive at the scene in a mere four minutes, and Trish probably wouldn’t have even been able to hang on as long as she did before eventually succumbing to her injuries.
Via Derek’s sister, I’ve come to learn that Derek said both he and Denis were driving slowly and cautiously, and that the roads were not that bad until they reached the icy patch Denis encountered first.
In sum, it is infantile to speculate about “what might have been” after the fact, especially absent all the facts of a case. And it defies common sense to believe that motorists should forever creep along on the roads simply for fear of the unknown (which in itself is a cause of accidents) -- after all, there’s always the possibility of encountering a deer, a falling boulder, a cow, or in the case of Denis and Trish, black ice (which gets its name, of course, from the fact that it is indistinguishable from the common navigable road).
Ken Rossignol is not concerned about telling the story right, so long as he gets to tell the right story. The commonality among those who are able to detect the cynicism and ignorance of Mr. Rossignol is that we were all guilty of attempting to rationalize with an irrational man, who quite surely derives pleasure from instigating those providing him the satisfaction of being taken seriously.
Indeed, for the second year in a row, my New Year’s resolution has been to give up trying to reason with unreasonable people. And if, like me, you’d like to take Ken Rossignol’s advice and find something that will “soothe your grief,” you’d be surprised how therapeutic that really is.
Trevor Bothwell
Host, The Right Report
www.therightreport.com
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