Letters to the Editors

Get facts right on examiner's timing

Re: Truck kills jogger on SR 54, Sept. 19

Editor: The article stated the body lay on the road for about three hours while investigators waited for officials from the Pasco-Pinellas Medical Examiner's Office to arrive. Investigators did not wait three hours for the Pasco-Pinellas Medical Examiner's Office.

This office and our investigators work very hard to respond to death investigation scenes in a timely manner, not to cause any unnecessary delays for the investigating law enforcement agency, the decedent and his or her family and the community we serve.

Here is the accurate information that should have been sought: 8:43 a.m., time of crash; 10 a.m., law enforcement investigators make notification of the fatality to this office; 11:10 a.m., investigator from Medical Examiner's Office arrives at the scene; and 11:40 a.m., decedent is removed from roadway.

After the crash, an hour and 17 minutes elapsed before our office was notified. We have no control over how long it takes for notification to be made to this office. Even though it is the duty of the law enforcement officer assigned to and investigating the death to immediately establish and maintain liaison with the medical examiner.

Our investigator was able to respond from our office in Largo to the crash location in just over an hour. Considering the time of day and the major traffic congestion at the crash location, I would consider this excellent. Once at the scene, it was only about 30 minutes before the scene investigation was complete by our office and the decedent was removed.Excellent in my book.

I find it surprising that an article would be written in such a manner without confirming the information regarding the allegations, and without consideration given to the impact the statements would have on this office. Any Pasco County Government Official or citizen who read the story regarding this death would surely have gotten the wrong impression that the Medical Examiner Office was responsible for this three-hour delay. Clearly, this was not the case.
-- William A. Pellan,Director of Investigations, District Six Medical Examiner Office Pasco & Pinellas Counties

County needs its own medical examiner

Re: Trucks kills jogger on SR 54, Sept. 19

Editor: Over 15 years ago a friend of mine passed away and for some reason, what was then County Hospital would not pronounce him dead and they put him in an ambulance to go to Clearwater to the medical examiner. They charged his wife $98 for the ambulance.

Shortly after that a man was killed on U.S. 19 and his body was on the side of the road for a prolonged time while they got the medical examiner from Clearwater.

Wednesday, a gentleman was killed on SR 54 and his body stayed in the middle of the road with a sheet over it while they got the medical examiner from Clearwater. If he had any family, it had to be sheer horror to know he was in the middle of the highway for three hours.

After my friend passed away and the man was killed on U.S. 19, I strongly suggested that Pasco should have its own medical examiner. The powers to be pooh-poohed the idea. We were too small.

I hope this incident will force the county to take some action to get us a medical examiner. To have a body in the middle of the highway is totally inexcusable. It is almost criminal.

I was in the line of traffic that had to creep by his body. The sight upset me and I am a retired emergency room nurse. I can only imagine how others felt.

Pasco County must get a medical examiner so that a crime like this never happens again.
-- Kathryn L. Robinson, Holiday

Right to bear arms is for our own protection

Re: Constitution doesn't give everyone right to pack a pistol, Sept. 20 letter

Editor: While we all appreciate the fact that the letter writer served at the Battle of the Bulge, such does not make him an expert on the Constitution. But I would expect him to be able to authoritatively answer the question, "When the Nazis were attacking you, did you just stand there and get shot? Or did you fight back?"

It's not a rhetorical question. He claims he so abhors weapons that he won't permit one in his house. As an 80+ year-old man, just how would he expect to fight back if he's ever attacked in his own home?

More to the point, people who, unlike the writer, actually are constitutional experts, pretty uniformly agree that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to bear arms. Even Laurence Tribe, long the lone antigun voice among recognized constitutional scholars, has come to understand that the collective rights theory is simply wrong.

In the past century, governments have been responsible for the slaughter of more than 100-million of their own citizens. That's more than died in all wars between countries in the same period. The reason Americans retain the individual right to bear arms is to make sure that such carnage never comes to America.
Kurt Amesbury, Oviedo

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