Still seriously bummed, and the Feed

OK I got a call from OK this morning after posting the Tasha Borland links last night. Some of the links I read made it look like the manslaughter terms were concurrent instead of consecutive. That is not the case, but instead of a minimum of 20 years until parole she now only has 16 years. That’s still a lot of time, and she will not be allowed to have a license to drive until her probation is up in 29 years, that part didn’t change. But the fact that the judge just ignored all the e-mails sent (I hope you were all polite and respectful in those e-mails) and reduced her sentence at all. The good news out of this is that the time it will be a major felony if she gets caught driving has not been reduced, the bad news is she will have an additional 4 more years to get caught in that major felony.

Up first is a MI report on a cyclist hit from behind apparently while trying to make a left turn. Bicyclist hit and killed in Clinton Township Some of the comments made references to the cyclist wearing dark clothes and not having reflectors, but I did not see that in the actual report. I did see the cyclist in the inside lane about a quarter mile from someplace to turn left, all nice and legal. Anyway, riding at night, lots of lights and reflectors, if you find something you can use to make a Honkin’ Huge Taillight™ that would help. What would really help is a clue-by-four between the eyes for drivers to expect to see bicycles (with riders) on the roads and be ready to slow down and not run them over, but that requires two things that are sorely missing at the moment: political will to create new laws and enhance existing laws against running over cyclists, and will for LEO to actually enforce those laws, as they don’t seem to have a great deal of enthusiasm for enforcing the ones we have now.

Two children riding the same single bike are injured when the rider in control (?) of the bike pulls in front of a pickup truck. Two On Bike Injured After Hitting Pickup OK several things these girls did wrong, first of which was adding a passenger to a normal kids’ bike. Second thing was riding after dark without lights (I assume the 11 YO would not bother to remove any reflectors from her bike), and the third thing was to run the stop sign. I looked at the location in Google Street View, and to be perfectly honest I don’t see how the driver of the pickup could have gotten fast enough to leave 50 feet of skid mark on the street without the intention of exceeding the posted 30 MPH speed limit. I looked it up and including reaction time it takes on average 75 feet to stop from 30 MPH with a car with the brakes locked, and it takes 30 to 44 feet to react, so maybe just a touch over the speed limit for the truck. I know, I get a bit obsessed and a tad on the wonkish side when something upsets me like the reports from late last night…

The Denver Post is even slower than I am about keeping up with bicycle news, but at least I have an excuse for being 24-48 hours behind. Probe of Boulder cyclist’s death begins after 4-month backlog You might remember this from last week as the CSP finally gets an investigator free to handle this. I’m just one guy using Google to search out links, the Post is a huge news organization with dozens of reporters to be on site and reading incoming releases from LEO. Why did they report this more than a WEEK after I found the link? And why did they link to the Daily Camera story instead of actually having a reporter read the press release and write something? This does not bode well for keeping up with news if you read the Denver Post… Right Patrick? (Maddog Media reporter Patrick O’Grady).

The family of the victim iof that right-hook in NYC are taking NYPD to task for flubbing the case (in D&D terms they rolled a 1 on their attack and dropped the sword on their foot taking 1D6 of damage and have to pass on their next turn as they pull the sword out of the floor where it has pinned their foot). Mother Of Cyclist Killed By Williamsburg Truck Driver Blasts NYPD and Killed Cyclist Mathieu Lefevre’s Family Demands Answers At NYPD HQ I have covered the wreck “report” earlier, that has physical impossibilities “explaining” the wreck and who was at fault (hint to NYPD when the cyclist is hit from behind, don’t try to say he ran a red light and the weapon vehicle didn’t). This is just reaction to that “report”.

Still in NY, a killer gets sentenced. Driver Who Killed Cyclist Gets Ten Days In Jail Are they serious? Ten days for killing someone while in illegal possession of a WMD? TANJ!

Speaking of a lack of justice for cyclists, the driver that killed Dannielle Naçu has been charged in her death. Driver faces $110 fine after cyclist dies Killing a cyclist with the door of your car is a serious crime in Canada, about 2/3 as serious as riding a bicycle on the sidewalk without hitting anyone… Seriously TANJ!!!!! Want to kill someone, find some way of doing it with a car that doesn’t look too deliberate. The woman that ran her ex over 19 times with their SUV went a little overboard, but that’s TX for you.

And finally a study from OZ shows why having a helmet camera running every time you ride is a good idea. Australian helmet cam study reveals motorists to blame in vast majority of cycling crashes (+ videos) I can’t see the videos with this computer, so I’ll have to take their word on what they show, but what they say it shows is a series of cars driven with total oblivion to anything other than cars on the road. Now sometimes cyclists really do swerve without looking from one lane to another, but most of the time the cyclist was there all along and the driver paid no attention until the cyclist was bouncing off the windshield and this study shows that.

LifeStyle in FL as a Wounded Warrior ride comes into a town. Bike tour aims to aid military veterans As always as a veteran and a cyclist WoaB asks that you support these rides when you are in the vicinity of one.

And that’s all the news that gives me fits today…

Billed @$0.02, Opus

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Breaking news: Tasha Borland has had her sentence reduced to a mere 10 years in jail for killing 2 cyclists. The emails we sent were ignored. If I read the report correctly, then she will be eligible for parole in 7 more years, when she could have gotten life without parole.

I just don’t understand this, she was on her third strike for DUI, in TX that would have made her eligible for execution if the victims had been in a car because of her prior DUI convictions. In OK she could have gotten life without parole for the vehicular homicide with the aggravating circumstance of previous DUI, but because her family has money and political connections her sentence was reduced. I suspect that the fact that her victims were cyclists may have had something to do with it as well, but I can’t prove that. I do know that her previous convictions for DUI were “punished” by making her go through a treatment center instead of jail because of her political connections, but I had hoped that her actually killing 2 people would have broken those connections.

More links, hang on this will be a bumpy ride as the links come in Prison Term Shortened For Sand Springs Woman Convicted In Cyclists’ Deaths and Prison term lessened for Oklahoma woman convicted in bicyclists’ deaths another one Sentences reduced for two Tulsa killers still more Oklahoma judge trims 4 years off woman’s sentence for manslaughter in 2009 death of 2 cyclists aaaand another one Prison term lessened for woman convicted in bicyclists’ deaths they just keep coming in Sentence Modified For Woman Who Ran Over Cyclists ain’t done yet Judge modifies sentence for woman convicted of killing two cyclists there are more links every time I hit refresh Borland jail time reduced, probation extended another one Reduced jail time for woman convicted of hitting and killing cyclists

I think that’s it for now…

PSA, Opus