Justice Denied?
Drivers who kill riders don't always go to jail
from the May issue of American Motorcyclist, reprinted with the permission of the American Motorcyclist Association


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 deaths 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. If you'd like to get involved, the AMA's Government Relations Department can use your help (see "Motorcyclists Matter," at left).

     Meanwhile, we're watching several cases that have not yet gone to trial to see what 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 us they're taking this case very seriously. Still, previous experience suggests that there's no way to tell how it will turn out.

AMADirectlink.com
Compiled By Bill Kresnak - BKresnak@ama-cycle.org