(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) As details begin to emerge over the tragic traffic-related death of Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., along with two staffers and an oncoming motorist, it appears socialism may be indirectly to blame.
Elkhart County officials on Thursday revised their initial assessment that the other driver, 56-year-old Edith Schmucker, was responsible for the head-on collision in northern Indiana, four miles outside the town of Nappanee, the Daily Mail reported.
Instead, it appears that Walorski aide Zachery Potts, 27, was at the wheel of the SUV that crossed over the center line, smashing into Schmucker and resulting in the deaths of both drivers, as well as Walorski and her communications director, 28-year-old Emma Thompson.
An investigation by Headline USA and Headline Health indicated, however, that the true culprit may have been the highway engineers who inserted a European inspired “socialist roundabout” in the middle of a long stretch of State Route 19 as it intersected with two other roads coming into town.
While the final details of a police report have yet to reveal what transpired, the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Thursday that video evidence and interviews with witnesses had led it to revise its preliminary determination.
“Both confirm that the maroon Buick LeSabre driven by Edith Schmucker, 56, Nappanee, Indiana, was southbound on SR 19 south of SR 119 and the silver Toyota RAV 4, driven by Zachery Potts, 27, Mishawaka, Indiana, was northbound on SR 19,” said the statement, posted to the ECSO Facebook page. “The Toyota RAV 4 crossed the centerline for reasons that are unknown at this time and the two vehicles collided.”
The positions of the two vehicles at the time of collision make it likely that Potts was unaware of the approaching roundabout in the largely rural route, which abruptly slows to 15mph with a divided highway median appearing out of nowhere.
Such traffic-calming designs have been in place for some time in urban areas, such as Washington, D.C., to the bane of drivers who are unfamiliar with the specific rights-of-way as one might expect at a four-way stop sign. Even drivers who know the procedures must remain on guard for those who do not.
But in rural areas, where they have become a more recent development, and where drivers may be accustomed to traveling at higher rates of speed, they pose an even greater risk.
A 2011 article posted to the now-defunct Examiner.com noted the resistance campaign being waged on the pages of the local newspaper in Yakima County, Washington, where “[t]he best thinking among traffic engineers with input from insurance companies and the Dept. of Transportation, [was] to build traffic circles to replace dangerous intersections.”
Although a letter to the editor has since been stealthily removed from the site, the Examiner piece quoted its writer, John P.:
“I always thought roundabouts were just an attempt to impose European socialism on the USA but these have a really good design which helps traffic flow smoothly,” he wrote.
“Great job WSDOT!” the letter continued. “My only complaint is the $20M that came from borrowed Stimulus funds. I believe public infrastructure is part of the governments purpose but when so much of our tax money goes for social programs there is very little left for projects which benefit the general population.”
That letter spurred another objector to a proposed roundabout at San Marco Boulevard in Jacksonville, Fla.
“As with ‘Obamacare,’ a little bit was not enough for them: they are going for two,” said a blogger posting under the pseudonym Lemule Blogiver.
It cited a separate letter from the Times–Union opinion pages that noted the effort to install roundabouts appeared to be linked to former President Barack Obama’s shovel-ready spending projects to stimulate the recessive economy.
In the Nov. 25, 2011 piece, aptly titled “Here We Go Again,” writer John Robertson denounced the administration’s “European Socialistic Solutions.”
Blogiver, in response, noted that “Roundabouts cause one to go around in circles: the simplemindedness they create is well documented… And once you get on a roundabout, there is no getting off.”
As Obama’s former vice president, current President Joe Biden, appears poised to sign Democrats’ new $740 billion spending bill, largely to address green infrastructure funding, America is likely to see even more deadly traffic circles dotting its roadways.
And like the confusing roundabouts themselves, their may be no getting off this collision course en route to the new Liberal World Order, with Republican lives like Rep. Walorski seen as collateral damage in the process.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at truthsocial.com/@bensellers.
