Radio DJ's Wife Killed in sc430
07-13-05, 03:07 PM
#1
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Radio DJ's Wife Killed in sc430
I'm not sure if anyone posted this earlier, but the wife of syndicated DJ Don Geronimo (Don and Mike Show) was killed while driving her SC430 this past Sunday. She was apparently hit head-on by a 97 Explorer and did not survive. I had driven the same stretch of road on the eastern shore of MD about 3 hours earlier, and my sister drove it a few hours after the accident. I feel pretty sick thinking about the effect of time on fate. Anyway, does anyone know about the SC's safety rating. Should I assume that I am extra vulnerable in my SC, perhaps the top is so light that it doesn't provide good protection?
Crash kills Freda Wright-Sorce, wife of radio's Don Geronimo
Radio personality Don Geronimo's wife, Freda Wright-Sorce, dies in car accident
Date published: 7/12/2005
By MICHAEL ZITZ
Area fans of radio's Don and Mike Show may have felt as though they'd lost a member of their own family yesterday when they learned Don Geronimo's wife, Freda Wright-Sorce, had been killed in a car crash.
WBOC-TV in Ocean City, Md., reported that a 10-car pileup about 2 p.m. Sunday on westbound State Route 90 near St. Martin's Neck Road led to a collision that killed Freda Wright-Sorce, 50, of Great Falls.
The TV station reported that an eastbound Ford Explorer crossed the median to avoid the stopped traffic and hit Wright-Sorce's westbound Lexus SC430 head-on.
She was flown to the University of Maryland Hospital's shock trauma unit in Baltimore, where she died from her injuries, according to WBOC.
The driver of the eastbound Ford Explorer, Jevgenijs Dunajevskis, 22, of Berlin, Md., was reportedly treated and released at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury.
Don Geronimo is a radio name. The broadcaster's real name is Mike Sorce.
Freda Wright-Sorce was often heard on the show, calling in to join in on-the-air conversations between Geronimo and co-host Mike O'Meara.
Though she sometimes disputed her husband's version of events, Freda was always congenial, and concluded her on-air conversations by affectionately calling Geronimo "Booger-Bear."
The Don and Mike Show's official Web site had been temporarily taken down yesterday afternoon.
DCRTV.com, a Web site that covers Washington-area broadcasting, quoted O'Meara as saying of Freda Wright-Sorce: "She was the conscience of this show. She was an integral part of this show, and an integral part of all of our lives."
Neither Geronimo nor his son Bart was in the car when the crash occurred, DCRTV.com reported.
The Sorce family owns a vacation home in Ocean City, and lives in Great Falls, near the studios of radio station WJFK in Fairfax, where the nationally syndicated Don and Mike Show originates.
Yesterday, O'Meara did the show solo, playing "best-of" tapes involving Freda Wright-Sorce to honor her memory.
"It's very, very sad," said Henry Spiller, an advertising representative at Pohanka Auto Group in Spotsylvania County who's been a longtime listener of the show and has called in to speak with Don and Mike on the air.
Spiller, who lives in Caroline County, said he and many of his co-workers listen to the program every day and felt they knew Freda.
"It's tragic," he said.
"We were sitting here at work and my boss's wife came in with the news, and everybody stopped what they were doing," Spiller said. "That's how shocked we were."
Crash kills Freda Wright-Sorce, wife of radio's Don Geronimo
Radio personality Don Geronimo's wife, Freda Wright-Sorce, dies in car accident
Date published: 7/12/2005
By MICHAEL ZITZ
Area fans of radio's Don and Mike Show may have felt as though they'd lost a member of their own family yesterday when they learned Don Geronimo's wife, Freda Wright-Sorce, had been killed in a car crash.
WBOC-TV in Ocean City, Md., reported that a 10-car pileup about 2 p.m. Sunday on westbound State Route 90 near St. Martin's Neck Road led to a collision that killed Freda Wright-Sorce, 50, of Great Falls.
The TV station reported that an eastbound Ford Explorer crossed the median to avoid the stopped traffic and hit Wright-Sorce's westbound Lexus SC430 head-on.
She was flown to the University of Maryland Hospital's shock trauma unit in Baltimore, where she died from her injuries, according to WBOC.
The driver of the eastbound Ford Explorer, Jevgenijs Dunajevskis, 22, of Berlin, Md., was reportedly treated and released at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury.
Don Geronimo is a radio name. The broadcaster's real name is Mike Sorce.
Freda Wright-Sorce was often heard on the show, calling in to join in on-the-air conversations between Geronimo and co-host Mike O'Meara.
Though she sometimes disputed her husband's version of events, Freda was always congenial, and concluded her on-air conversations by affectionately calling Geronimo "Booger-Bear."
The Don and Mike Show's official Web site had been temporarily taken down yesterday afternoon.
DCRTV.com, a Web site that covers Washington-area broadcasting, quoted O'Meara as saying of Freda Wright-Sorce: "She was the conscience of this show. She was an integral part of this show, and an integral part of all of our lives."
Neither Geronimo nor his son Bart was in the car when the crash occurred, DCRTV.com reported.
The Sorce family owns a vacation home in Ocean City, and lives in Great Falls, near the studios of radio station WJFK in Fairfax, where the nationally syndicated Don and Mike Show originates.
Yesterday, O'Meara did the show solo, playing "best-of" tapes involving Freda Wright-Sorce to honor her memory.
"It's very, very sad," said Henry Spiller, an advertising representative at Pohanka Auto Group in Spotsylvania County who's been a longtime listener of the show and has called in to speak with Don and Mike on the air.
Spiller, who lives in Caroline County, said he and many of his co-workers listen to the program every day and felt they knew Freda.
"It's tragic," he said.
"We were sitting here at work and my boss's wife came in with the news, and everybody stopped what they were doing," Spiller said. "That's how shocked we were."
07-13-05, 03:29 PM
#2
Forum Administrator
iTrader: (2)
Ouch bad news. I listened to those guys when I lived in VA/MD areas years ago and often still do when I'm working in the area (as I am now) on the drive back to the hotel. Remember her calling in from time to time and being mentioned on the air.
I'd guess this type of crash (head on highway speeds with SUV) could cause fatality no matter what vehicle you were driving.
I'd guess this type of crash (head on highway speeds with SUV) could cause fatality no matter what vehicle you were driving.
07-13-05, 06:40 PM
#3
Lead Lap
What a tragedy. This likely has nothing to do with the safety of your SC.
Fatalities are not that unusual when two vehicles hit squarely head on at combined speeds above 45 mph. At the kind of high speeds (85 mph) currently common on interstate highways in the midwest , the combined speeds of two cars going in opposite directions can easily approach 170 mph. Almost no one survives a squarely head-on crash at that speed or speeds that are far lower. Fortunately many if not most interstate "crossover" crashes are "glancing blows" where one vehicle bounces off the side of another vehicle going in the opposite direction.
One thing I have noticed while driving on divided motorways in the U.K. and Europe is a larger or sturdier physical divider between opposite lanes than typically found in the U.S. - a concrete barrier or a sturdy metal fence between opposite lanes and/or a much larger median. Here in the midwest, we seem to have to make do with a few feet of grass median.
The most recent stats I have for highway deaths show the U.S. at 17th with 14.7 deaths per 100,000 miles. Sweden is at 6.1 deaths/100,000 miles and the U.K. is at 6.2. There are some countries that are a lot worse. Greece where I rented a car several years ago is at 22.5 deaths per 100,000 miles.
Fatalities are not that unusual when two vehicles hit squarely head on at combined speeds above 45 mph. At the kind of high speeds (85 mph) currently common on interstate highways in the midwest , the combined speeds of two cars going in opposite directions can easily approach 170 mph. Almost no one survives a squarely head-on crash at that speed or speeds that are far lower. Fortunately many if not most interstate "crossover" crashes are "glancing blows" where one vehicle bounces off the side of another vehicle going in the opposite direction.
One thing I have noticed while driving on divided motorways in the U.K. and Europe is a larger or sturdier physical divider between opposite lanes than typically found in the U.S. - a concrete barrier or a sturdy metal fence between opposite lanes and/or a much larger median. Here in the midwest, we seem to have to make do with a few feet of grass median.
The most recent stats I have for highway deaths show the U.S. at 17th with 14.7 deaths per 100,000 miles. Sweden is at 6.1 deaths/100,000 miles and the U.K. is at 6.2. There are some countries that are a lot worse. Greece where I rented a car several years ago is at 22.5 deaths per 100,000 miles.
07-14-05, 07:13 AM
#5
Lexus Champion
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 2,206
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sad to hear this. Didn't really know them, but my condolences are with them.
Now WTH was this kid thinking? I hope they charge him with something and make him do some time, even if it's 1000 hours of community service. Crossing the median because traffic was stopped...duh, maybe he should have stopped too!
Now WTH was this kid thinking? I hope they charge him with something and make him do some time, even if it's 1000 hours of community service. Crossing the median because traffic was stopped...duh, maybe he should have stopped too!
07-14-05, 08:20 AM
#6
Super Moderator
That's tragic 
, I' ve never heard of them, but condolensces to their family all the same. 
& yes, a head-on collision can easily be fatal nomatter what car one is driving.
, I' ve never heard of them, but condolensces to their family all the same. & yes, a head-on collision can easily be fatal nomatter what car one is driving.
07-14-05, 08:33 AM
#7
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
I guess what shocked me was that the other guy wasn't hurt!
He was a 22 year-old foreign student, probably from The Czech Republic, where a lot of seasonal employees originate for work in Ocean City. Anyway, his dumb mistake in a 1997 Explorer (notoriously crummy in collisions) cost this poor woman her life. I always feel that Lexus' are so heavy and durable, I figured it would do fairly well against the Explorer, even though it was car against SUV. But, the Explorer guy walked away from the accident.... I'm not sure if she had the top down or not. If so, that would certainly make her more vulnerable. I'm not sure if the aluminum roof, when up, provides equal protection as a non-convertible, or whether it is simply the same as a more durable soft top.
Trending Topics
07-14-05, 09:09 AM
#8
Lexus Fanatic
My condolences, of course, go out to her husband and family on the loss, but to be honest I never thought much of his radio show...still don't. It's very Howard Stern-like in its machoism and shock effects, and he has been busted for possession and use of marijuana.
Now...the accident itself. This is just one more example of a subject we have discussed a number of times here at CL......... how many tall, older-generation ( like this '87 Explorer ) truck-based ladder-frame SUV's tend to penetrate the cabins of low-slung cars ( like an SC430 ) and cause catastrophic damage when they impact. The heavy, ladder frames and bumpers of these trucks and SUV's tend to be at just about driver and window height of low-slung sports cars. Flip.....with you working in the insurance buisness, I'm sure you have seen this type of accident....more than once. It is a well-known and well-documented traffic hazard, and much effort has gone into the design of newer truck-based vehicles to prevent this from happening as much as possible. Newer vehicles of this type have drop-downs at each end of the frame rail assemblies that more or less coincide with bumper heights on cars....and doesn't compromise the off-road-abilities of these vehicles too much.
Of course that won't bring Freda back....may she rest in peace. And it is possible that because of the enormous forces of a head-on-impact, she may not have survived even with airbags and the more modern SUV design, but hopefully the efforts now going into preventing this type of catastrophe will pay off for future drivers.
Now...the accident itself. This is just one more example of a subject we have discussed a number of times here at CL......... how many tall, older-generation ( like this '87 Explorer ) truck-based ladder-frame SUV's tend to penetrate the cabins of low-slung cars ( like an SC430 ) and cause catastrophic damage when they impact. The heavy, ladder frames and bumpers of these trucks and SUV's tend to be at just about driver and window height of low-slung sports cars. Flip.....with you working in the insurance buisness, I'm sure you have seen this type of accident....more than once. It is a well-known and well-documented traffic hazard, and much effort has gone into the design of newer truck-based vehicles to prevent this from happening as much as possible. Newer vehicles of this type have drop-downs at each end of the frame rail assemblies that more or less coincide with bumper heights on cars....and doesn't compromise the off-road-abilities of these vehicles too much.
Of course that won't bring Freda back....may she rest in peace. And it is possible that because of the enormous forces of a head-on-impact, she may not have survived even with airbags and the more modern SUV design, but hopefully the efforts now going into preventing this type of catastrophe will pay off for future drivers.
Last edited by mmarshall; 07-14-05 at 09:14 AM.
07-19-05, 04:36 PM
#11
Driver
Join Date: May 2005
Location: PA
Posts: 198
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by Shelley
He was a 22 year-old foreign student, probably from The Czech Republic, where a lot of seasonal employees originate for work in Ocean City. Anyway, his dumb mistake in a 1997 Explorer (notoriously crummy in collisions) cost this poor woman her life. I always feel that Lexus' are so heavy and durable, I figured it would do fairly well against the Explorer, even though it was car against SUV. But, the Explorer guy walked away from the accident.... I'm not sure if she had the top down or not. If so, that would certainly make her more vulnerable. I'm not sure if the aluminum roof, when up, provides equal protection as a non-convertible, or whether it is simply the same as a more durable soft top.
07-19-05, 05:07 PM
#13
I listen to the show daily when im in the car.
I was actually listening the day it was anounced
Wife and I where in AWW when we heard the news.
I cant imagine the pain Don and Bart are going through
I was actually listening the day it was anounced
Wife and I where in AWW when we heard the news.
I cant imagine the pain Don and Bart are going through
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
