Fetterman (D., Pa.) has received two speeding tickets in his home state — the more recent one of which was in March for exceeding the speed limit in Westmoreland County by 34 mph. Before this year, he was ticketed in April 2016 for going at least 24 mph above the speed limit in Warren County, according to state public records.
The senator’s aides have said Fetterman has texted and FaceTimed while driving, ”prompting concerns among his staff and fears about riding with him,” the Post reported, citing three people with knowledge of staff discussions who spoke about internal conversations on the condition of anonymity.
@DrunkEngineer 34 & “at least” 24 mph over the limit are some pretty serious speeding tickets, and the frequent reports of distracted driving are a serious problem too. Senators who support Vision Zero programs or care about traffic safety at all need to speak up about this and hold him and other negligently driving colleagues accountable. Especially after his stroke & related health problems, he should be extra careful, not distracted & 34 mph over the limit!
@DrunkEngineer It’s a terrible example to the public and a potential conflict of interest. How is someone who’s used to getting away with driving like that (& having wide roads that allow him to) supposed to cast unbiased votes on transportation bills?
Yeah, be could end up having a serious pedestrian error…
Given his public post-brain-damage behavior, I don’t think his plan is to do anything in an unbiased manner.
34 over‽
Where I’m at that’s reckless driving as well and a suspended license even if you pay your fine.
FFS that dude needs to learn to drive properly
He’s had enough brain damage to turn him into a conservative. The guy probably shouldn’t be driving at all
deleted by creator
Probably taking the turnpike. There’s a section in Westmoreland County where it randomly drops from 75 mph to 55 mph and catches everyone off guard. There’s also sections of Route 119 that randomly drop from 50 to 25 for no discernable reason, other than catching out-of-towners by surprise and slapping them with a speeding ticket.
This guy is such a disappointment.
Who is he? Was there some kind of hype around him?
He is the Senator from PA. He was super liberal up until he had a stroke and then became super conservative. Complete 180. Seems to have knocked out his sense of humor too. Now it seems he’s taking risks he would not have taken pre stroke by driving recklessly.
He was super
liberalprogressive up until he had a stroke and then became super conservativeAlso something oddly hilarious about brain damage making him conservative.
Just another point on the graph tbh, along with all those senior citizens…
Is he actually “super conservative”? Or are you just talking about the interview where he said he wasn’t progressive?
@TheSambassador @FollyDolly He was never super liberal or conservative. He’s a centrist with strong views on individual issues. Those familiar with his work in PA knew him as willing to stand up and fight in a way that’s refreshing coming from a Democrat on certain issues (marijuana, LGBTQ+ rights) but deeply problematic on others (police, fracking). His overall politics have probably shifted a bit to the right since the stroke, but the change is more in people’s awareness of him.
He comes off as a Neoliberal. Everything for the big companies and institutions, but without the racism and discrimination against individuals that comes with conservatism.
They also want a bit of regulation opposed to the regular liberals. (I mean the definition of liberal, not what American politics has made of that word)
Is there any mechanism for his area to trigger a vote of no confidence in him and get him replaced?
deleted by creator
The speeding tickets are for 34 mph and 24 mph above the limit, this is roughly 54.7 kph and 38.6 kph or 15.2 m/s and 10.7 m/s above the limit in standardised units.
Are the offenses of a single US-American lawmaker really !fuckcars@lemmy.world-worthy?
I mean, he really shouldn’t be driving considering he had a debilitating stroke. That’s fine for senatorial duties where you have aides and AIPAC telling you how to vote. Driving is a whole other thing.
That’s fine for senatorial duties where you have aides and AIPAC telling you how to vote.
welllll…
Wow, we have his doctor here. Lots of people who have had a stroke, even those with partial paralysis, are perfectly capable of driving.
Lots of people who have had a stroke and should absolutely not be driving are still driving.
Because in America telling old people they can’t drive is basically telling them to sit at home die sad and lonely. Or worse, move out of their status symbol suburban homes to which they have tied their entire self worth.
status symbol suburban homes
There’s a builder erecting McMansions and McTownhomes near me named NV Homes. I was curious to know what “NV” stood for until I got it: “envy”. It’s just pathetic how many people derive their sense of self worth from going into debt to buy one of these cardboard shit buckets.
speeding does use the individuals yearly earnings thats how bill gates speeding ticket was greater than ~10k USD
That’s around 55 kmph for anyone wondering about the conversion. Ouch!, I didn’t even push those limits in my reckless youth.
Those are rookie numbers. You need to verify your cars speed limiter actually works.
Yes mine works. Down to within 0.1mph (GPS verified).
What speedometer reads in decimal divisions?
The stopwatch and math kind.
If you know the distance between 2 points and can time yourself moving between them, you can verify your speed as finely as your data allows.
My buddy is also a car nerd and redid his whole instrument cluster and added a digital counter to his speedometer that was actually an old bedside radio panel thing so he had TWO decimals for his speed. Idk if it actually showed the speed with any more accuracy or just translated the needle position somehow but it looked very 80s Sci fi for sure.
The computer does.
The computer doesn’t have GPS, but my phone (same device logging the data) does though.
Anything 20+ where I live is considered reckless driving.
Ya I had a friend just lose a license for 20+. These speeds are crazy.
I’m always confused when I hear stories like this about important, powerful people. It feels like driving isn’t “worth their time” and when they have to travel by car, they should be escorted so they can continue to do their work.
how long before we find out he had a brain worm?
He’s also a genocide supporter.
Everyone in here acting like they’ve never gotten a speeding ticket or been in an accident.
I haven’t received a ticket for 20 over, that’s extremely reckless.
Oh no, Speeding! He’s unfit for the senate. Better have him resign. Can’t have bad drivers in Congress.
Oh no, breaking the law and endangering lives!
deleted by creator
How do you know he’s a bad driver? He might be a really good driver who just drives recklessly anyways because of a lack of concern about the wellbeing of others and chooses to ignore basic safety despite driving abilities.
I think you have conflated good and skilled.
A skilled driver can speed excessively without being out of control. A good driver won’t speed excessively because it isn’t safe.
I mean, he literally crashed his car.
If you drive enough, its likely to happen at some point. If everyone can walk away from it, that seems like a good outcome to me.
You need to make your sarcasm incredibly blatant on Lemmy. If you think it’s pretty obvious, you gotta make it twice as obvious.
No I think everyone gets the sarcasm.
Not in my experience, I just got a deadass reply in my inbox before this one to an incredibly obvious joke. Good to hear this is seemingly the exception.
I think at least 21 people didn’t!
No I’m pretty sure they did. Sarcastically dismissing this extremely fucked up behavior as politically motivated sniping is really fucking stupid.
No… They did.
