'Look at H2Oi as a hurricane': Ocean City task force tackles car events

Ocean City leaders took a major step to address annual vehicle events like H2O International that have caused major headaches in recent years.

No ideas appeared to be off the table at the Motor Event Task Force's first meeting, including calling in the National Guard.

The idea was quickly shot down as unrealistic, but it speaks to the lengths officials are willing to consider to mitigate the events' problems. 

Councilman Tony DeLuca pulled no punches in expressing his opinion of H2Oi.

"My suggestion is we look at H2Oi as a hurricane ... or 36 inches of snow. Every resident needs to hunker down for four days," he said. "It’s got to go away. I don’t care what we do, but it’s got to go away.”

But ideas presented at the Thursday meeting didn't involve getting rid of any particular event completely, but focused on methods of lessening their negative impact.

Creating special "zones" for attendees, and more-punitive rules for impounded vehicles are more-likely contenders for recommendations the task force will submit in early 2018 to the Ocean City Council.

The task force hopes laws will be in place prior to Cruisin' Ocean City event in May.

BACKGROUND: After H2Oi, no Cruisin' in Ocean City?

BACKGROUND: H2Oi: Ocean City looks to stamp 'fun out' to regain control

The 27-member task force met at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center for the first time since its creation in November. Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan said he hopes to curtail the illegal activities associated with many of the car-related events. 

The task force will meet again in January, with the hope that recommendations have been fully discussed and presented to the council ahead of the spring events.

The genesis of this task force is in response to the unsanctioned H2Oi, which brings droves of young people to Ocean City to showcase heavily modified Audis and Volkswagens, leaving in their wake numerous traffic citations, arrests and roadways marred by tire burnouts.

It was amplified by a rowdy crowd the following weekend during the Endless Summer Cruisin' event. 

Statistics show law enforcement responded to more than 2,700 calls for service, conducted more than 1,200 traffic stops and made 78 total arrests during the H2Oi weekend in late-September.

Organizers for H2Oi were not in attendance Thursday.

There were also double the number of traffic collisions compared to the previous year’s event.

That weekend also saw two law enforcement officers struck by a car driven by an 18-year-old man from Seaford who was trying to evade arrest, and a 26-year-old pedestrian from Connecticut struck by an Ocean City police marked patrol car making a left turn.

A video of at least one Ocean City officer striking a suspect as he was being arrested during the unofficial H2Oi gathering also made the rounds on social media in the wake of the weekend's activity. 

The police department's internal affairs unit reviewed the video shortly after it was posted and officers' accounts of the arrest, and ruled the actions were within the department's training and policies.

An Ocean City man was killed the following weekend when a state trooper's vehicle struck him near a crosswalk during the Cruisin' event, where there was also an extra presence of multiple police agencies. Two days later, another pedestrian was injured after being hit. 

Both events scored negatively on a police commission report that was presented to the council.

But at the Thursday meeting, Meehan said the task force had been assembled as a result of success — not failure.

Cruisin' was a success story when it started years ago, bringing people into town during the offseason. It spawned other ideas like Bikefest and Jeep Week among other car-related shows.

“Since that time, not only has the event grown, but the town has grown,” he said. “Because of that, we’ve encountered some of the issues and problems you have with success.”

Near the end of the meeting, Meehan brought up a number of potential solutions that had been discussed, and urged attendees to contemplate them further before the task force reconvenes in January.

There was the possibility of event-specific areas to help contain attendees, expanding impounding rules to keep illegally modified vehicles from getting back on the streets and utilizing social media to spread messages aimed at ensuring safety and curtailing reckless behavior.

"If we can define the message, we can use social media to counteract some other (negative) issues,” he said.

Ocean City Police Chief Ross Buzzuro is also on the task force that is made up of residents, business owners, organization members, event representatives and Ocean City staff.

Buzzuro stressed that the position of law enforcement on the motor events was entirely neutral. They aren’t concerned with whether they continue or not, and their goal Thursday was to simply provide facts in the hope of better serving the public.

“We're going to do the best job we can as we've always done,” he said. “We're committed to public safety, and I think that is our position – this is all about safety.”

Four of the events, due to their magnitude and complexity, require outside agency support: Cruisin' Ocean City, Ocean City Bikefest, H2Oi and Endless Summer Cruisin'.

Cooperating agencies include the Maryland State Police, Maryland State Transportation Authority, the Worcester, Wicomico and Queen Anne’s Sheriffs offices, and the Natural Resources Police.

Together, the cost and required manpower for enforcing the four events is estimated at $250,000. 

“In the combined total commitment, we're looking at 420 10-hour shifts and 4,200 personnel hours for those four events alone,” he said. “There's an estimated financial impact of about $250,000.”

A number of suggestions on how to mitigate lawlessness during these events had been proposed, Buzzuro said, including the deployment of the National Guard itself.

He was quick to shoot the possibility down.

“In my experience, there's only been a handful of times the guard has been introduced, lastly in Baltimore in 2015, a year before in Ferguson, and in the early 90s during the L.A. riots,” he said. “We're dealing with lawlessness, but not true criminality that would need involve the National Guard.”

Also proposed was the possibility of inspection stations for incoming traffic for the events.

The challenge with this proposition comes down to manpower and interference with traffic.

“When you’re looking at a one-by-one vehicle process with limited resources, spending a bit of time to work, with a limited number of officers certified to do inspections, it comes down to “Do the ends justify the means?’” he said. “It’s maybe not the best use of resources. We’re exploring it, but that’s the difficultly, plus traffic and congestion it would create.”

Another suggestion which had crossed his table – and one which was popular on social media following H2Oi – was the seizing of vehicles from law-breaking event participants for the duration of the event.

That was unlikely to be a particularly effective possibility as well, he said.

“If it's determined that a vehicle isn't street-legal, we'd take it out on a flatbed or a tow truck, but it's still their car,” he said. “They could literally come in a few hours later, pay for the tow and drive off with the car again.”

The Ocean City Police Department has also been working with the Maryland State Highway Association to create restrictions or change the dynamics of Coastal Highway in a way more conducive to public safety.

“In the extreme, I want to have the ability (to) move traffic out of Ocean City due to a safety concern. I want the ability to do that,” he said. “I mean that if traffic is backed up as it was during Spring Cruisin', we can move traffic out of Ocean City on Route 50 or Route 90.”

Bob Rothermal, CEO of Team Productions and organizer of the Cruisin' events, also a member of the task force, discussed first the growth of the event. In its first two years, less than 250 cars were registered to attend, he said. In the fifth year, that number had grown to 1,000 and today registration is limited to a maximum of 3,200.

He said 1,400 have already registered for the upcoming May 2018 event.

The biggest problem with the spring event is it's the big wake-up call for the season, "like going from zero to 60 mph."

Regarding crowd activity and safety, Rothermal said he was shocked and that he wanted to work with town law enforcement to whatever degree possible.

“We all know there are a lot of issues with illegal street activity," Rothermal said. "We’ve told cops all over town — if you see someone doing something that's a participant of ours, pull that (event) tag. We'll pull them and not let them participate."