LEBANON -- A Tristate father ticketed for speeding while driving his ailing son to the hospital got a break Thursday from the cops: The $157 citation was dropped.
With the news from Warren County Sheriff Tom Ariss, Tony Bamberger's scheduled appearance Thursday afternoon in Lebanon Municipal Court was canceled. The dismissal allowed the 26-year-old Lawrenceburg dad to join his wife in the hospital as they awaited their second child's birth.
"What a relief," Mr. Bamberger said in an interview from Good Samaritan Hospital.
A Warren County sheriff's deputy clocked Mr. Bamberger at 88 mph March 29 while the family raced down southbound Interstate 75 to Children's Hospital Medical Center. The blood sugar of his 2-year-old son, Kyle, was dropping to a dangerous level.
After Deputy Willy Pogue called an ambulance, he cited Mr. Bamberger for speeding and failing to restrain the toddler in a car seat.
Dismissing the citation "was the right thing to do," said Sheriff Ariss, who consulted prosecutors before calling the Bambergers on Wednesday. "We wanted to let them know we were concerned about it."
Sheriff Ariss was deluged with media calls and unsympathetic comments on local talk radio shows about his officer's judgment. Kyle's pregnant mother, Tammy, had held her son on her lap so she could monitor his condition during the harried trip from the home of relatives in Kettering, Ohio.
Waiting for his wife to deliver their baby Thursday at Good Samaritan Hospital, Mr. Bamberger was happy not to worry about the $157 fine and points on his truck driver's license.
