Intersection

Ever since I started driving I have dreaded the traffic in Georgetown. Now that I work here, I have to deal with it everyday. Quite often I see a policeman, standing at the corner of Wisconsin and M in a day-glo vest, directing traffic on my way home from work. Yesterday on my way to work, I saw news cameras on Wisconsin near M. This morning on my way to work, I noticed dozens of roses and letters taped to the street lamps and traffic signals around the intersection at Wisconsin and M. What had happened?

According to the Washington Post, the police officer I usually see at the intersection was hit by a 19-year-old girl in an SUV on Saturday. Here is what the Post reported:

Michael Palermo, manager of the Papa-Razzi restaurant and bar, said he saw the accident. Palermo was walking to Georgetown Tobacco to buy cigarettes when he stopped at a crosswalk at M Street and Wisconsin Avenue. A gray Honda sped up Wisconsin to make a left on M Street, he said.

[Joseph] Pozell, standing on M Street and facing pedestrians in front of the Banana Republic clothing store, "had blown the whistle" and turned as he always did -- on one foot, like a dancer -- so he could see traffic coming from the other direction, Palermo said.

"I saw fear in his eyes. . . . The impact was unbelievable," Palermo said. "The woman hit him head-on. . . . I don't know how she missed seeing him. He was standing in the middle of the street."

After Pozell was struck, Palermo said, the young woman began screaming and crying. He said he rushed to get someone to call the police and then went to Pozell's side. "I said, 'Joe, Joe,' and there was no response," Palermo said.

Pozell is well-known in Georgetown. He has lived in the neighborhood for 34 years and has been an unpaid reserve officer for the police department for three years.

He began helping pedestrians and motorists navigate the traffic-choked intersection in Georgetown nearly 18 months ago. In November, he said he began directing traffic because it was "a good way to do something for the community."

I haven't worked in Georgetown for long, but I know how horrible the aforementioned intersection is. During rush hour, I do my best to avoid it. It is terrible that this man, who was spending his free time trying to help prevent accidents, became a victim of one. On Tuesday night, Pozell died from the injuries he incurred at the intersection of Wisconsin and M.

A candlelight vigil held for him at nightfall Monday, at a park near the cemetery, drew the mayor and other officials in addition to many police officers and community residents.

They recognized him as the embodiment of public spiritedness, a man concerned with helping others, who saw work that needed to be done and decided to do it himself....

In interviews and in remarks at the vigils, formal and informal, police and others pointed to him as someone who could not do enough to contribute to the community in which he lived and to the welfare of his fellow residents.