County waits for blood test results to determine if motorist is guilty in Allen Johnson fatality
It appears that even drifting into the bike lane route and hitting a cyclist from behind, even if the cyclist is a Tucson police officer, will still not get you a citation for violating the three-foot safe passing rule. It seems the local authorities believe you can only be guilty of that violation if you were also drunk or on drugs when you hit the cyclist. (Tucson Citizen story)
Readers of this website will remember that Allen Johnson, an off-duty Tucson police officer, was riding his bike inside the bike lane route on Old Spanish Trail earlier this year when the driver of a pickup truck failed to see him, drifted out of her lane, and hit Officer Johnson from behind. He was killed.
Now, the statute says you have to give a cyclist three feet of space whenever you pass them. It doesn’t mention anything about being drunk or on drugs. So what’s the hold-up? Cite her already! Is it really that hard to write the damn citation?
TPD has no trouble driving to the hospital to cite my unconscious clients for all kinds of things. No bike light during the day, failure to yield to cars driving the wrong way down the street, that kind of thing. But it appears you need a really, really good case before you go ahead and cite a driver for hitting a cyclist. Even when the cyclist himself was a cop. I don’t get it.
Thanks to Ed over at AZ Bike Law for pointing this story out to me, which I missed.
–Erik Ryberg
May 5th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Erik — i wish we could get to the bottom of this: The police around here say quite specifically & publically that they will never ever issue traffic citations (which are generally civil) until they are really really really sure that no other charges (presumably criminal) will be brought due to double jeopardy problems.
I say this isn’t a problem (I am not a lawyer!).
http://azbikelaw.org/blog/double-jeopardy-and-flawed-logic/
This is like a mantra; here is what the Phoenix police spokesman said with respect to Don Anselmo’s fatality: “You don’t issue any citations if you think there’s a possibility of felony or criminal charges,” Tranter said. “Otherwise, double jeopardy might come into play.”
In that case there were a bunch of citations that were never issued; including no insurance, failure to yield. (no criminal charges were brought).
May 5th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
If it is agreed that county prosecuters have a duty to make the strongest possible case (and likewise, defenders), what’s so wrong with waiting for the motorist’s tox results to come in? Positive results would trump the ambiguous ARS 28-735, not to mention the generally poor transpo situation in Pima County and Tucson…
NB: had Allen Johnson been out for a jog or a walk that day, in that spot, rather than on a bike you wouldn’t be reading any of this here.
May 5th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
It boggles my mind to this day how you can take the life of a human being and really face no consequences whatsoever. Erik, you’re just talking about the enforcement of the 3 foot citation. I’m not sure how much above a speeding ticket that really is. And for killing someone! There’s something wrong with that picture. If you kill someone, there should be repercussions, end of story. I really don’t understand why it is so difficult to prove that when a car runs someone over from behind that they are at fault. If you ram into a motorcyclist from behind and kill them, do you get off scott free because there are no living witnesses? I don’t get it.
May 5th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I’ve got nothing against getting the blood results, though from what is circulating in the cycling community, they are almost certain to come back negative. We’ll see. But nothing in the statute requires a person to be impaired to get the citation. The driver should have been given this citation immediately.
Next time I get cited for rolling through a stop sign I think I’ll demand a blood draw and tell them they better wait to give the citation till after they have analyzed it. You never know, I could have been drinking!
EBR
May 5th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Hi Mickey,
You can’t rear-end a motorcyclist and get away with it. You can’t rear-end a car and get away with it. But if you rear-end a cyclist, not only will you get away with it, most often the cyclist will get a ticket (usually while in the hospital).
What boggles my mind is that the bicycling community tolerates this behavior. I do not understand why we let this stuff happen.
EBR
May 5th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Supposedly, Pima County Sheriff’s dept. wants to charge the driver to the maximum extent, and they are waiting to see if the tox tests give them more charges. After that, they will turn the case over to the D.A. The family plans on working with the DA’s office, and we’re hoping that Pima County will be forthcoming and helpful after the tox tests come back (they will probably be negative).
Of course, if things don’t pan out this way, and the driver is not charged, we will be upset. Perhaps the (still living) cyclists in Tucson could contact the D.A. and express your concerns that this sort of thing be prosecuted?
May 5th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Brad — Thank you for the great update! It is good to hear the Sheriffs Dep’t is actually interested in pushing this. Good luck.
EBR
May 6th, 2009 at 8:07 am
“It boggles my mind to this day how you can take the life of a human being and really face no consequences ”
Especially a place which houses 25 percent of the worlds inmates, and incest, gay marriage, drugs, gambling, and prostitution are illegal.
All the while people who hit cyclists get the jail free card. Much like DUI deaths, nothing sort of genocide allowed by the people and government, by not willing to leverage a just consequence for their actions. Pathetic!
People have been really nice lately by the way.
May 6th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
[...] into Allen Johnson’s death still pending — there is understandably a lot of conjecture regarding what charges may be brought, or not brought, as the case may [...]
May 6th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
EBR Writes: “Next time I get cited for rolling through a stop sign I think I’ll demand a blood draw and tell them they better wait to give the citation till after they have analyzed it. You never know, I could have been drinking!”
And if you keep ARS 13-502 for the end game, it might not be of much help.