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Meet Silver Spring's Would-Be 'Speed Demons'
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You read that right. According to an official Montgomery County document, Terence Conway Brennan chose 4:12:45 p.m. on June 25 to pilot his tiny Toyota Echo past a well-known speed camera like he was Kyle Busch approaching the checkered flag in No. 18.
Any machine can break. But before the camera citation was mailed to the Brennans, it was reviewed, certified and signed by a technician with Montgomery's Safe Speed Photo Radar program, just like thousands of other citations sent out since the state-approved pilot program began last year.
So who could say? Maybe if we had a video, rather than a snapshot, we would watch Mr. Brennan, with his bride of 40 years at his side, spin the slicks when the light turned green at Sligo Creek, aim his four-cylinder tin can up the grade, wind around the two big curves in time to hit the century mark after three-tenths of a mile, then, after a tenth more, decelerate in time to make the 90-degree turn at Dale Drive.
"Well, the last thing I remember, doc, I started to swerve . . ." No, as Jan and Dean warned us, you won't come back from Dead Man's Curve.
The notorious Brennans have been the talk of the neighborhood. "We're the Speed Demons," Helga said, with an impish smile.
But she added more firmly: "We don't speed."
Last month, these rebels with a cause mailed a letter to the county's Automated Traffic Enforcement Unit:
"This speed violation left us speechless," they wrote. "A hundred miles per hour during rush hour on Wayne? It never happened. Cannot have happened. Please check if your equipment malfunctioned and other people received similar notices for that day."
They received no reply.
"We fell down on this one," said Lt. Paul Starks, spokesman for the county police. When I asked police to look at the citation, the traffic unit quickly realized what had happened. The Brennans will get their $40 back. But here's the part the couple really cares about:
