Tempe prosecutors and police department practice even-handed approach to cyclists and motorists
Turns out in Tempe it doesn’t have to be a cyclist you run down and kill in order to escape prosecution. Up there in Tempe they even let you kill other motorists!
From the January 23, 2009 Arizona Republic article:
Just after 9 p.m., Ruben was headed west on Broadway when a southbound SUV, having just come off the Hohokam Expressway, ran the red light at 48th Street. The 25-year-old driver told police he had a green light and was going the speed limit. However, witnesses disagreed, as did the red-light camera that snapped him as he blew through the intersection.
According to Tempe police, the light had been red for 7.83 seconds when he came through, doing 48 mph in a 35 mph zone. Put another way, he was 550 feet from the intersection when that light turned red. Police said he had “more than adequate distance” to stop.
He just didn’t.
Irma Quintana took a direct hit when the SUV came crashing into her son’s Honda Civic. Rescuers tried for an hour to save her, but couldn’t.
No alcohol or drugs were involved. Police chalked it up to driver inattention and sent it on to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
This week, prosecutors took a pass.
“He wasn’t impaired,” spokesman Mike Scerbo told me. “He didn’t flee the scene. It was not considered reckless behavior. It’s tragic, but it can’t be qualified as a felony.”
Not reckless, to be going 48 mph in a 35 zone, even though you’ve driven over four “rumble strips” to alert you to slow down? Not reckless, when the light had been red for nearly eight seconds? Count out eight seconds to see just how long that is.
What exactly is the message we are trying to send here? Get a bigger car so when this happens you don’t die?
Because the story actually gets worse:
Ruben’s attorney, Clifford Heiney, says the SUV driver had eight prior speeding tickets and had been cited three times for driving without insurance before the April crash – when he also apparently had no insurance.
Heiney said he had been cited four times for driving with a suspended license, though police said he had a valid license in April.
Scerbo told me prosecutors have sent the case to the Tempe city attorney, recommending that the driver be charged with a Class 3 misdemeanor for killing Irma Quintana.
If convicted, the driver would have to go to traffic school and pay a fine. He even could see his license suspended.
Again, that is.
–Erik Ryberg
January 27th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Eric, you have uncovered the perfect weapon to kill someone in the state of AZ. Just hit then with your car, you will never get prosecuted, even if you’re slightly tipsy. Doesn’t matter who you hit, or how many, just as long as nobody can prove there was prior animosity… I swear you guys are almost as bad as TX used to be, at least your LEO will catch the guy. When I got hit (in TX) they destroyed the evidence so they (couldn’t) wouldn’t have to investigate.
Opus
January 27th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
“Doesn’t matter who you hit, or how many, just as long as nobody can prove there was prior animosity…”
It does kind of matter who you hit – anybody remember that cop who got killed in the Phoenix area awhile back when some guy yakking on the phone veered over the center lane? As I recall they didn’t let *him* off with a little wrist-slap.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I can sum America up. If a majority or someone who has authority does something it will be considered ok cost of doing business please move on, If a minority does something we will throw you in jail for life.
Pathetic.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:14 am
I agree with Scott, things would also have been a lot different if the victim was a Dorothy O’Reiley in a Rolls Royce instead of a Irma Quintana in a Honda Civic.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:41 am
I feel sick to my stomach reading that story.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:51 am
[...] more outrage out there as well, not all of it stimulus-related. Tucson Bike Lawyer writes about a shocking case of flagrant red-light running that resulted in a fatal crash — and [...]
January 28th, 2009 at 11:38 am
[...] more outrage out there as well, not all of it stimulus-related. Tucson Bike Lawyer writes about a shocking case of flagrant red-light running that resulted in a fatal crash — and [...]
January 28th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Alison – me too, sick indeed. And that bit about the lesson here – that we should be driving giant cars to prevent death…sicker still.
January 28th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
This is close to what the Marana Police Dept said to us when an intoxicated woman hit and killed our friend Megan. The woman was drunk and also stoned–she had several DUI arrests, and arrests for drug possession. Her licsense had also been suspended. The case was “dropped” because the Marana Police said they had “lost” the evidence of her alcohol test, which meant that it could not be proved she was intoxicated. The judge said, and I quote, “What did you people think you were doing riding your bikes out there anyway?” implying we were at fault somehow? The drunk driver did about 30 hours of community service for the ticket she got drving (drunk)thru a construction zone on Silverbell and into the bike lane. Witnesses and even the policeman who showed up at the scene commented on how she was staggering drunk. Family eventually were told that the woman was an informant for the Police Dept and the case would go nowhere. In other words, she got off scott free.
She is free to kill again, as it the man in the Tempe story…