 Justice
Denied?
Drivers who kill riders don’t always go to
jail
American Motorcyclist,
April 2002, Page 22
A driver in Newport News, Virginia, makes a left turn in front of an
approaching motorcycle. In the ensuing crash, the rider is killed, and a
passenger on the motorcycle is left seriously injured.
The driver’s sentence? A $200 fine.
Meanwhile, in Canon City, Colorado, a driver kills a motorcyclist in
a hit-and-run crash. He gets 16 years in prison.
Why the difference? Sure, there are aggravating circumstances, such as
leaving the scene of an accident. But those only partially explain the huge
disparities.
Over the past several months, the AMA has been looking into a number
of cases in which car drivers caused accidents that resulted in the death
of riders. What we’ve found is that penalties for killing motorcyclists
are astonishingly inconsistent.
We’ve received numerous reports about accidents from AMA members across
the nation. And it’s clear from these reports that in some cases drivers
get away with a proverbial slap on the wrist, while in others, the penalties
truly seem to fit the crimes.
Take the case in Newport News, Virginia. Last September, driver Betty
Elliott turned her car directly into the path of a motorcycle ridden by
20-year-old Adam Svihla, killing him and injuring his passenger. When sentenced
in January, Elliott was ordered to pay just a $200 fine, plus court costs,
on a charge of failing to yield right-of-way. It appeared that the consequences
of that action—one person dead and another injured—were ignored.
That sentence didn’t just offend motorcyclists; it also outraged Jim
Spencer, a local columnist with the Daily Press.
“Whenever violations of traffic laws take human lives,” Spencer wrote,
“justice demands that the people responsible forfeit their driving privileges
at least temporarily. If the law doesn’t allow for that in all fatal accidents,
then the law should be changed.”
In a similar case near Grand Rapids, Michigan, driver Norman Walton turned
his pickup truck into the path of a motorcycle ridden by 43-year-old Stephan
Shemanski, killing Shemanski and injuring his passenger.
Walton was found guilty of causing a fatality while driving on a suspended
license, a charge that could have sent him to prison for up to 15 years.
Instead, he got 90 days in jail and probation.
In handing down that sentence, Judge H. David Soet basically absolved
car drivers of the responsibility for watching out for motorcyclists. A
story in the Grand Rapids Press included this quote from him: “The driving
in this case was the kind almost anyone would have done. Anyone who has
practiced law in this city for over 30 years, as I have, knows that people
don’t see motorcycles. They somehow overlook them.”
Those are hardly the only examples of tragic accidents with little in
the way of consequences for the car driver. In Pennsylvania, the deaths
of two motorcyclists resulted in a $225 fine. In Wisconsin, the penalty
for killing a rider was $300. And in another case in Michigan, a fatal crash
got the driver two years of probation plus 60 hours of community service.
That’s one side of the coin. But in other cases, courts have held drivers
more accountable for their actions.
In the Canon City, Colorado, area, Abel C. Acosta of Pueblo was driving
his pickup truck an estimated 80-90 mph on U.S. Route 50 near Penrose when
he ran into the back of a motorcycle ridden by Steve Luther, 38.
Luther was killed, and Acosta fled the scene, driving 14 miles with the
motorcycle embedded in the front of his truck before abandoning the vehicle.
He was caught and pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and leaving the
scene of a fatal crash. In February, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
In a case in Columbus, Missouri, driver Joseph Brimberry crossed the
center line and ran head-on into a motorcycle ridden by Sam Butcher III,
killing the motorcyclist. Brimberry pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter
and leaving the scene of an accident, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Our research indicates, though, that such harsh sentences are the exception,
and usually stem from additional factors, like leaving the scene of the
crash.
In an effort to eliminate these inconsistencies and assure that drivers
who kill motorcyclists are held accountable for their actions, the AMA has
started the Motorcyclists Matter campaign. This is an effort to get states
to set minimum penalties for drivers who injure or kill not only motorcyclists,
but other vulnerable road users like bicyclists and pedestrians as well.
If you’d like to get involved in that campaign, the AMA’s Government Relations
Department can use your help (see “Motorcyclists Matter,” at left).
Meanwhile, we’re watching several recent cases that have not yet gone
to trial to see what kind of sentences are handed down. That list includes
one particularly appalling case in Miami, in which the driver of an SUV
allegedly rammed a motorcycle from behind, killing rider Billy Allred, 47,
and his wife, Debra, of Ramsey, Indiana.
According to police reports, the SUV driver continued down the road for
several hundred yards with the riders’ bodies on top of her hood before
being forced to stop when the motorcycle embedded in the front of her vehicle
caught fire.
What can we expect in court? We've informed authorities there that the
whole motorcycling world will be watching, and police officials have assured
is they're taking this case very seriously. Still, previous experience suggests
that there's no way to tell how it will turn out.
Motorcyclists Matter
Want to see car drivers held accountable when they cause accidents in
which motorcyclists die? So do we. That’s why the AMA has launched the Motorcyclists
Matter campaign.
“Research has shown that more than half of all multi-vehicle motorcycle
crashes are caused by drivers who turn left in front of an approaching motorcycle,
pull into the path of a motorcycle from a side street, or violate a motorcyclist’s
right-of-way in some other way,” says Imre Szauter, AMA legislative affairs
specialist. “It’s time for states to get tough with these drivers.”
Under the initiative, the AMA is asking state legislatures to pass laws
calling for mandatory fines ranging from a minimum of $200 for causing an
accident in which another road user is injured, up to at least $1,000 if
someone is killed. In addition, there would be mandatory driver’s license
suspensions ranging from 30 days to six months, depending upon the severity
of injuries. Those amounts would be on top of any penalties for traffic
violations associated with the accident.
The program also calls on states to develop a course for offenders, focusing
on the vulnerabilities of motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. And
it would encourage the creation of public information campaigns reminding
drivers to watch for motorcyclists.
The campaign has already had some successes. In Washington state, the
Washington Road Riders Association worked hard to get a bill passed that
could result in car drivers being charged with the felony crime of vehicular
assault if they operate any vehicle with disregard for the safety of others
and cause substantial bodily harm to another. In New Jersey, the Concerned
Motorcyclists of New Jersey have succeeded in getting the AMA’s model legislation
introduced in the Legislature. Similar bills are being considered in New
York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. And in Virginia, the AMA is helping
the mother of a crash victim get a tougher law enacted.
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