Prescott road-rager found guilty

In an incident where a car driver was driving waaaay too close to cyclist Paul Katan. Katan is a certified cycling instructor and works for Prescott Alternative Transportation.

[dailyCourier]

“…a jury convicted the Jaguar driver, Jack Ingebritson, 64, of misdemeanor (criminal) charges of endangerment and reckless driving. On Tuesday, Prescott City Magistrate Arthur Markham fined Ingebritson $1,500, ordered him to perform 32 hours of community service and go to traffic survival school.”

Inquiring minds wonder: how is it that the trial was in some unspecified June date, and the story just made it to the newspaper on July 14,2010? I tried to look up the court records for the rager, but didn’t find anything (Prescott muni, and justice are not online there).

There was a follow up editoral a few days after the news story.

Did the punishment fit the crime? Were the charges appropriate?

The convicted rager “… admitted that he was five to six inches from the bike, according to the police report.” While Ingebritson was clearly guilty of endangerment, and reckless driving, it seems to me that his actions were an assault; he intentionally placed his weapon a few inches from the victim.

Here is a roundup of Arizona’s assault and endangerment statutes.

The news article refers to “endangerment”; if they are referring to §13-1201. a violation of which is a class 1 misdemeanor, I have to wonder about the magistrate’s judgment — a small fine and a few hours of community service for such a (potentially) dangerous crime?

I’m thinking/wondering if a more appropriate charge would have been assault, and potentially aggravated assault.  “Generally, the essential elements of assault consist of an act intended to cause an apprehension of harmful or offensive contact that causes apprehension of such contact in the victim” [legal-dictionary]. Note that the act does NOT need to result in any actual contact, or any actual physical harm, just creating the apprehension is enough. The guilty man intended to drive very close to the cyclist, it was not accidental.

On the other hand, violation of §13-1203(A)1 is also a class 1 misdemeanor (the same as endangerment, seems a little odd?). To be guilty of aggravated assault, §13-1204, a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument would have had to been used in committing the assault. Personally, I find that multi-ton, multi hundreds of horsepower automobiles can be dangerous instruments. Anyway, aggravated would bump up the crime to some level of felony.

The other charge which the defendant was found guilty of was reckless driving. That would be 28-693, and is a class  2 misdemeanor. Nothing was mentioned regarding the driver’s license of the culprit. Which leads me to believe the magistrate was letting him off too easy.  “In addition, the judge may require the surrender … of any driver license of the convicted person…  and may order the driving privileges of the person to be suspended for a period of not more than ninety days”. Why no revocation, or suspension?

Phoenix city parks to charge $5 fee for parking

More on driver’s attitudes towards parking:

“I’m kind of flabbergasted,” … “It seems like we’re getting taxed right and left. They shouldn’t be charging for this. It’s going to be a financial burden for some people.”

And what is “this”? Why, (formerly) free parking of course. Parking must be “free” and plentiful. And I’m sure it could be a burden for some, but let’s keep things in perspective; Phoenix recently instituted a 2% grocery tax.

The plan would charge $5 a day, yearly passes would be available for $75. [arizona republic]

Little drips make a big mess

More externalities of mass motorization.

The Arizona Republic ran this USA Today story under the better-named  headline “Gulf spill can’t rival oil seepage from cities: Over time, tiny drips add major pollution to oceans”.

“Human-caused spills send more than 300 million gallons of oil into North American waters every decade, an amount roughly double the highest estimate of the BP spill”… “the largest human-caused source of oil into the environment is the byproduct of millions of autos and other oil-powered devices.”

Land-based oil spills add up, too

USA Today, 6/30/2010 Continue reading “Little drips make a big mess”

Burning 10,000 barrels a day

In order to mitigate marine damage, some of the oil that is leaking from the blown-out BP / Deepwater Horizon well, around 10,000 barrels a day is being burned into the open air in a completely uncontrolled combustion. [story from AP: BP starts burning oil from leaking ruptured well, June 16, 2010]

BP or whoever can theoretically run around an pick up every tar ball and clean off every pelican, but who is going to clean the air? As is usually the case, nobody does.  So everyone gets dirtier air. It’s just blowin’ in the wind. Just another externality of oil and gas consumption.

Ezra Klein had a good piece on externalities in last week’s Washington Post:

Think gas is to pricey? Think again Continue reading “Burning 10,000 barrels a day”

More on Arizona politics and photo-radar

So this is in the wake of the formal announcement a couple of weeks ago that DPS would be terminating the contract for highway photo-radar enforcement.

Photo speed-enforcement may not be gone for good.

Gov. Jan Brewer doesn’t like photo enforcement; she put in her guy to direct DPS, Robert Halliday.

a “top commander” (number 2?), Lt. Col. Jack Hegarty seems to sort of like it. In any event he lobbied for a law (bill number? “The DPS bill passed and was signed into law on May 7” ) that that give DPS control of any future program. This is probably a good idea, as it at least theoretically removes some of the opportunities for political meddling.

Bill s from the 49th 2nd Regular session relating to photo enforcement:

  • SB1018 (Chapter 266): Photo enforcement procedures. apparently this it the bill referred to in the article, but i don’t really see how this gives DPS control(?)
  • HB2338 (Chapter 213): the yellow light business.

“When Redflex alerted the media that DPS was canceling the contract, speculation was rampant that Gov. Jan Brewer made the decision to dismantle the controversial system to score political points. But Brewer’s nominee to run DPS, Robert Halliday, insisted the decision was his”

Arizona Supreme Court rules on DUI blood-test issue

Recent ruling in the Phoenix case of Joes Carillo: “The Arizona Supreme Court ruled this morning that, to collect blood from a person suspected of DUI, police must get specific consent from the suspect or get a search warrant…” Read the rest from NewtimesBlog. Continue reading “Arizona Supreme Court rules on DUI blood-test issue”

An Historic Citation

This is an update to an earlier story involving cyclist Randy Mason and the driver of a Flagstaff city transit bus.

In Bicyclist 2 Bus Driver 0 Daily Sun article, the city attorney is recommending BOTH citations (speeding and §28-735) be issued. This is official recognition of the law is a huge win for cyclist safety.

Though the city attorney went on to completely flip-flop on the citations, requesting and receiving a dismissal, I wanted to highlight some of the significant developments Continue reading “An Historic Citation”

Driver Sentenced: Bullhead City cyclist killed in hit-and-run

Larissa Jean Castilleja
Larissa Jean Castilleja

Larissa Jean Castilleja, 43, a Bullhead City High teacher was killed Sept 9, 2009 when a driver hit her and fled the scene.

This fatality bears many similarities to several of four recent fatalities in the Phoenix-metro area this past summer.

  1. the automobile driver hit-and-ran (all 5 incidents)
  2. DUI on the part of the automobile driver is suspected (at least 4 of the 5 incidents)
  3. time of day was overnight/early morning (ranging from 10pm to 4am)
  4. no improper actions on the part of the cyclist are suspected (all 5 incidents)

The suspect was later charged with manslaughter and leaving the scene, on Sept 28 he plead not guilty; and according to the Mojave Daily News, has secured himself  all-star Scottsdale DUI lawyer Scott Maasen. In granting the reduced bond, the judge expressed reservations and then … did it anyway! It was also revealed in that story that the defendant has an outstanding warrant for DUI in Nevada, which he says he is not aware of.

The Plea

The defendant plead guilty to manslaughter, leaving the scene, and DUI. Sentencing is scheduled for May 21, 2010. Case number S-8015-CR-200900986, online lookup.

Sentencing

The [mohavedailynews] had a pretty good rundown of the sentencing:

Judge Steven Conn sentenced Gagliardi to prison for 13 years for both felony crimes (8 for the manslaughter, 5 for hit-and-run), saying the two charges were separate crimes and deserved consecutive sentences. He only found a lack of criminal record as a mitigating factor and that Gagliardi also had about 20 moving violations, mostly for speeding. He found aggravating factors that Gagliardi’s blood alcohol rate was more than twice the legal limit and the emotional harm to Castilleja’s family. The judge also said he hoped the sentences would be a deterrent to people who visit the casinos and drink then get into their cars to drive home.

see also [kingmandailyminer].

Continue reading “Driver Sentenced: Bullhead City cyclist killed in hit-and-run”

Agressivity and SUVs

No, not aggressive driving. This is why (truck-based, not so-called “crossover”/car-based) SUVs and pickups are bad for everybody.

The term agressivity refers to…

The effects of vehicle model and driver behavior on risk,  Accident Analysis & Prevention, Volume 37, Issue 3, May 2005, Pages 479-494
doi:10.1016/j.aap.2004.08.002

We find that most car models are as safe to their drivers as most sport utility vehicles (SUVs); the increased risk of a rollover in a SUV roughly balances the higher risk for cars that collide with SUVs and pickup trucks. We find that SUVs and to a greater extent pickup trucks, impose much greater risks than cars on drivers of other vehicles; and these risks increase with increasing pickup size. The higher aggressivity of SUVs and pickups makes their combined risk higher than that of almost all cars. Effects of light truck design on their risk are revealed by the analysis of specific models: new unibody (or “crossover”) SUVs appear, in preliminary analysis, to have much lower risks than the most popular truck-based SUVs.

…

Driver found guilty: South Phoenix Hit-and-run

7/11/2009: location listed only as “South Phoenix”,  in the early morning hours of Saturday,  hit-and-run. Police apprehended Max Ramiro Garcia, 33, in an unrelated traffic stop (speeding). ( azcentral.com,  KPHO). was charged with manslaughter and leaving the scene in the death of cyclist Robert Flakes; Superior Court Case Number CR2009-145409 case minutes Continue reading “Driver found guilty: South Phoenix Hit-and-run”

Traffic Signal Timing

With all this talk about yellow lights and whatnot, I thought it would be a good time to review the how’s and why’s of Traffic signal timing, and then on to how it affects cyclists because this is a distinct problem. On the surface it’s simple, green, red, yellow but like everything else there’s more to the story. Continue reading “Traffic Signal Timing”

Arizona texting ban dies for real, again

After some lazerous-like moments, the Arizona legislature finally killed a texting ban for this session. SB1334, (select 49th Legislature, 2nd regular session before clicking). [news item1] … “S1334, a bill to ban texting while driving sailed through the Senate early in the session, but it stalled in the House and never received a hearing. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Al Melvin, a Tucson Republican, and it’s likely to come back again next year”.[azcapitoltimes news item] (Republican Andy Biggs is the chairman of the House Transportation Committee)

The usual complaints from the we-already-have-enough-laws legislators were successful once again, despite a groundswell of diverse support.  For example typical sentiments at the time that Phoenix Banned Text Messaging “Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, (at the time) chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said there are enough laws against distracted driving. He said further legislation is a waste of time. ‘If it comes to my committee I would hold it,’ Gould said”.

More recently, in March Gould said (in the video news piece) that if you really want to improve safety, you ought to ban talking on cell phones. And I agree. He, of course, doesn’t support such a ban; he supports neither.

ASU student dies in collision on University

ASU student Christopher Volpe, 24, was killed Monday 5/10/2010 when he collided with an SUV. According to police, the driver of the SUV was not at fault. No impairment is suspected. According to this news account: “Police tell 3TV the man was in the eastbound lane of University near Ash”.

According to the ABC15 account: “Police Sgt. Steve Carbajal said 24-year-old Christopher Volpe was apparently traveling west on University Drive when he turned left in front of oncoming traffic and was struck by an SUV.”

I did get some clarification from Molly Enright, Community Affairs Specialist at the Tempe Police Department — the correct information is as Sgt. Carbajal said. [The ADOT crash database, however, indicates both units were going straight ahead on perpendicular paths, and that the cyclist disregarded a signal. Directions given: West/driver (University Ave), South/cyclist (Ash St). I do not have the crash report]

The turning left in front of the SUV doesn’t seem to add up; given the location of the pictured damage. From the picture, it appears the cyclist t-boned into the middle of the passenger side of the SUV.

So I am still confused? [it’s also inconsistent with FARS crash type, below which claimed a “same direction” left-turn error, and nothing about disregarding a signal. hmm.]

And by the way, as the commenter pointed out, below, southbound Ash vehicular traffic must turn at University — though it’s not clear if that has anything to do with it.

A couple of the accounts say that “Police have determined that he (the driver) was not at fault” — that was fast.

In the wake of this tragedy, Tempe’s First Ghost Bike was placed. [azrepublic] story on the ghost bike installation.

2010 Arizona cyclist fatality grid

[azrepublic] [azfamily/3TV][evtrib][abc15]

Crash Reports ASDM / FARS

This is ADOT incident 2414578. Summary of ADOT database entries: Fatal collision at a signalled intersection. Both units are GOING_STRAIGHT_AHEAD in perpendicular directions. The driver has NO_IMPROPER_ACTION with “contributing cirumstance”: GLARE_SUNLIGHT.
The cyclist has his position given as “CROSSWALK”, and is faulted for DISREGARD_TRAFFIC_SIGNAL. The driver suposedly has damage to his FRONT_RIGHT, with his GOLD, FORD, PASSENGER_4DSW_STATION_WAGON_4_DR given as disabled, but I’m not confident that data was applied to the correct unit.

Supposedly, the driver tests positive for cocaine, and the cyclist positive for marijuana, but (again) I don’t have confidence in the proper application of these data.
[TODO: check FARS database for drug test result]

This is FARS case 40292, see see below for PBCAT

Welfare Wagons

In a typical bit of masterful Jenkinsian prose, he lays out the case for raising fuel taxes, which I happen to agree with. However, he scolds “politicians” for not being courageous while at the same time not endorsing any such increase himself. This theme appears over and over in WSJ editorial opinions.

Even if you believe saving gasoline is a holy cause, subsidizing electric cars simply is not a substitute for politicians finding the courage to jack up gas prices. Think about it this way: You can double the fuel efficiency of any car by putting a second person in it. You can increase its fuel efficiency to infinity by refraining from frivolous trips.

These are the incentives that flow from a higher gas price. Exactly the opposite incentives flow from mandatory investment in higher-mileage vehicles. You paid a lot for a car that costs very little to operate—so why not operate it? Why bother to car pool? Why not drive across town for a jar of mayonnaise?

Welfare Wagons, WSJ, May 12, 2010

Use taxes are the best way to reflect the externalized costs of an activity.  E.g. in this example taxes on motor fuel. Fuel taxes have been falling for years, this makes the cost of driving less and less — which, as Jenkins points out, tends to make people drive more and more. There are a couple of reasons the tax is falling, one is the simply that taxes are levied on a per gallon basis and the amounts rarely change (Arizona has levied the same tax for around 20 years), this means the real price of the tax is continuously falling. for 20 years. Another is the tendency for vehicles to become more efficient over time, resulting in a lower tax per mile traveled.