Tragic case of killed cyclist in IL

[Tuckervill]

I hope the family hires a good lawyer and they clean out her insurance company. It's so terrible.

I had to buy a new car recently (my Beetle got creamed by a sweet sweeper last month). While I was test driving a Subaru, I asked the salesman if he's ever been scared on a test drive. He said, indeed, he was riding with a 19 year old girl who was going 90 on the interstate and TALKING ON HER CELL PHONE in one of his brand new Subarus. He demanded that she pull over and let him drive, and the whole way back she was on the phone complaining to her daddy, who showed up at the dealership and chewed the salesman out!

I fear these teenage girls on the phone while driving.

Karen

[pll]

This is incredibly sad and I am, too, appalled by the reckless behavior of that teenager and by sentence she received.

[Geonz]

THis accident happened about 3 miles from my house.

The driver already had enough tickets (3 in 19 months) so that her license was *supposed* to be already suspended - but somehow it never got sent through to the right place so it didn't happen. One of the tickets was for going 26-30 mph over the speed limit on a road cyclists ride often; she was going to hit *somebody* and soon. (There's some feelijng that basically, she doesn't quite have the wherewithall to handle the responsibility of driving... and her blog entries - until it was taken down - were mostly about other things, but she definitely seemed to think this accident was something that had happened **to her.** )

Our state's attorney (Julia Rietz) didn't think that she could find this girl guilty of "wilful and wanton" neglect... many people disagree with that since the girl obviously *consciously* decided to download the ringtones but I can't help but think that lawyer-wise it could be true. Lots of people are ready to draw and quarter Julia Rietz - but she is working with Matt's parents (the victim) on "Matt's law" to develop a charge in between a petty offense and a whatever category felony the next step up would be.
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/loc...cyclists_death
THe other part that galls cyclists here is that statement she made that it was unreasonable for the driver to expect to see a cyclist. Hello??????? That's an appalling legal precedent -we're already the ONLY state in the union where cyclists are considered "permitted but not expected" on the road unless there's signage indicating otherwise (which stinks, because it has made the pwers that be take down share the road signs and refuse to consider bike lanes because of perceived liability).

Off my advocating soapbox now (but if you'd like to add something to Julia Rietz' mailbox, her address is:
Julia Rietz
States Attorney
101 E Main
Urbana, IL 61801