Kill a Cyclist in San Diego, Get Probation
Posted By Thomas Bahde on January 8, 2010
One year ago, Arthur Newman drove his BMW into (and killed) Walter Joller, who was riding in a bike lane with lights and reflective vest on Sabre Springs Parkway. Newman was apparently not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, just inattentive to the blinking, reflective presence to his right. For this act of gross negligence, Newman today received just three years probation, 100 hours of volunteer work, 20 days of public service, and a fine of $700. That’s the cost of a law-abiding human life, apparently, in San Diego.
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[...] including the beautiful Bike Church. Bike San Diego reports that carelessly killing a well-lighted, bike lane-riding cyclist isn’t worth a single day in behind bars. But S.D. traffic signals are finally starting to respond [...]
This is absolutely disgusting. What an injustice.
Cyclist Walter Joller was killed by Arthur Newman, a negligent motorist. The cyclist in this tragic incident was riding in a striped bike lane when he was struck from behind by a motorist driving so negligent that he found himself DRIVING IN THE BIKE LANE. This motorist’s negligent actions were only realized after killing an innocent human being.
Now, this judge has normalized negligent and lethal driving.
What a huge step backwards.
This ruling reaffirms the popular misconception that cyclists are nothing more than “guests” on “motorists’ roads.” Furthermore, this ruling makes evident that in America, we as cyclists need a firm, well-educated, pro-active legal team (like the ACLU) out defending cyclists in the court of law to make sure that we are not treated as second-class citizens and sub-humans in this auto-centric establishment.
Even worse insult to injury (or fatality as we had here) after the 5 year prison sentance for the Thomson-road rage case in LA.
Pretty horrible. So, if someone ran down the Mission Beach boardwalk with a spear out in front of them, and “inadvertently” went off course and ran someone through, impaling and killing the poor soul who was just out for a nice walk, they might expect to get a slap on the wrist and no jail time?! Considering motorists kill 40,000+ people a year in the U.S., and spears may kill, say maybe a dozen, seems like the motorists flailing their vehicles about are far more dangerous and deserve more regular and harsh punishment that any spear or sword wielder.
As pathetic as this sentence is, at least there was a sentence. Consider the case a couple months ago in Texas when a man drove his pickup into a couple on their tandem, killing both and orphaning their 7 year old daughter. No charges were filed. So as perverted as it may seem, this case is almost a step in the right direction. http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/People-outraged-driver-who-struck-and-killed/wtZVy_UNMECDopcvKlpt4A.cspx
Vehicular negligence is abhorrent, but our society’s ability to write it off as “accidental” is even more so.