thunderphill

A motorist who struck and killed a bicyclist on Alum Creek Drive last summer has been charged with vehicular homicide.

Michael R. Cline, 36, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing in Franklin County Municipal Court on Friday.

Police accuse him of being negligent on Aug. 21 when he struck and killed Tracey Corbin, 46, a South Side man who had been riding his bicycle on Alum Creek near Watkins Road.

Corbin's family said he was a safety-conscious cyclist who pedaled to and from his job off Groveport Road. They said his bicycle had lights, and he wore a safety vest.

Assistant City Prosecutor Ian Overking said accident-investigation detectives gathered evidence for several months before filing the misdemeanor charge against Cline, who lives at 2506 Hoose Dr. on the Far West Side.

Although Corbin's bicycle lights did not work after the collision, police found witnesses who said they had been flashing before the crash. Corbin had been wearing his luminescent vest, Overking said.

"The bicyclist was doing everything he should have done. Given the bicyclist's conduct, I would say that the defendant was negligent, just in not observing the bicyclist operating in front of his car," he said.

Cline and Corbin had been headed south when Corbin was struck from behind at 5:15 a.m., police said.

"When you come down through Alum Creek with all these trucks and all the lights, I didn't see this guy," Cline said in a 911 call.

"He initially said that he thought it was a deer that he hit," Overking said yesterday.

Overking said he will talk with Cline's attorney, Ralph Kerns, at the Friday hearing to "try to get an idea for where the case is headed."

Kerns did not reply to a request for a comment yesterday.

Kurt Erlenbach

Vehicular homicide in Ohio is a misdemeanor? In Florida it is a felony that gets you a minimum of 11 years under our sentencing guidelines. It also requires more than simple negligence, however. in Florida, the negligent killing of a person with a car would get you a noncriminal citation for careless driving, just as if you accidentally rear-ended someone.

genec

What ever happened to the Taxi driver that hit the group of 11 cyclists on the Causeway to Miami?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaDC370PlG4

John E

I'll bet the Ohio motorist will get to plea bargain for vehicular manslaughter, instead of homicide.

politicalgeek

I thought the two were interchangeable?

We're still waiting (Columbus resident) for something to break in the case of another cyclist who was beat to an inch of his life last spring/summer. I think it was 3 months before any details were released about the car involved.

Pscyclepath

Arkansas just sent a fellow to the State Pen for three years for hitting a cyclist last October. Driver was DWI, plus under the influence of cocaine. Pled guilty to negligent homicide, and got the rather mild sentence.

genec

Driver got sentenced due to DWI.

It is very very rare for a driver to be convicted after a cyclist death unless drugs or alcohol are involved.

Mayday328

The gentleman said he thought he hit a deer at first? Seriously? Perhaps after he is convicted he should acquire a good pair of glasses. Bicyclists with flourescent vests should not be mistaken for deer.

politicalgeek

Don't forget the lights he had on, according to the eyewitnesses...

During TOSRV last year, a Michigan cyclist was killed by a driver who left the scene and came back a half hour later claiming she thought she had hit a road sign.

politicalgeek

Sorry to bump an oldie. The case was resolved yesterday with a plea bargain-no contest in the vehicular homicide. $100 fine, suspended license for a year with limited driving privileges. 48 hours community service and about $600-700 in court fees. 100 day jail sentence was suspended. Seemed like the victim's family did not want jail time in this case.

5 of us were present during the day in the court house in support of the cyclist. 2 of us, myself included, had to leave since they delayed the case pretty far into the afternoon. The 3 that were left were actually taken into a conference room with the prosecuting attorneys and given the details and had their questions answered. The defense attorney also spoke to the 3.

More details here on the Yay Bikes! forum.

Kurt Erlenbach

Thank you for posting the result. It is rare that we get the final resolution of a case, and I appreciate your taking the time to follow this.

These kinds of cases present a real conundrum for the legal system. The driver apparently was a good guy who made a mistake with terrible consequences. The law rarely punishes simple negligence by making it a crime - negligence generally is a civil wrong, not a crime. Where simple negligence should verge into criminal liability is a hard question. When a negligent driver bumps into your car at a light, he gets a ticket and your insurance takes care of the damage, including the personal injury, if any, and few people would argue that such a mistake should be treated criminally. But exactly the same mistake reuslting in exactly the same bump to a cyclist will have much more serious consequences and could have catastrophic consequences. Should it be a crime because the results are so much worse, even if the driver's culpability is the same? A hard question that every cyclist should consider.

politicalgeek

I think one of the most interesting things in this case is seeing the turnout from the local cycling community-little to none. At the same time that this has been coming to a close, another cyclist-very well known and respected in the community-was killed by an intoxicated driver. So far we've seen 50 cyclists in the courtroom for the well known cyclists, 200 + on a memorial ride and very prominent coverage of the case on their website.

It's interesting to see one case virtually ignored by the community and another so prominently covered.

gcottay

Congratulations to those involved with the Yay Bikes site.

martinus

I heard she went home, got in her other car & went to work ... cyclist kiled on impact.
All she got was 1,000$ fine and 2 mo. Wtf ?

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cofgrn

Continued sentences like this will lead to open season on cyclists.

unterhausen

no, people don't want scratched paint

politicalgeek

She came back within half hour to forty minutes.


As much as it disheartens me to see such light sentencing, isn't there something to be said for the fact that most of these incidents would result in a few hundred or thousand dollars in damage and some whiplash if it involved two motor vehicles? That's not to excuse the responsibility one has on the road. I think what I get out of these cases is not the need for harsher punishments (what can this really do with so many cases rarely publicized) but more proactive measures. Can the roadways be improved to provide a safer atmosphere? Can we revise our motor vehicle licensing to include better recognition of cycling rights, laws and responsibilities? Can we address reckless drivers at their first or second infraction rather than the 10th that involves a fatality?

wahoonc

How about training drivers to actually drive? Driver's education in the US is a total joke. 36 hours of classroom training, 4 hours of hands on, proof of insurance, pass a written test and very basic skills test and you too can be free to pilot a 2 ton ICE on our country's highways and byways, and if you manage to stay out of trouble you may not ever be tested again. Driving a vehicle properly and safely is not something that can be, nor should be learned in a whole 40 hours.

If any other industry in the US killed 40,000+ people a year and cost over $164 BILLION usd to the economy, it would be shut down very quickly.

The lack of responsibility and ability of drivers as well as the basic laws of physics is why I am a fan of a dedicated, properly design cycling infrastructure. It has already been determined that there is safety in numbers of cyclists, and if you want people to cycle give them infrastructure.

Aaron

fetad

Is training required in your state? Maybe the rules have changed here, but when I received my license (11 years ago) all that was required was a 20 or 30 question multiple choice test and a simple skills test on a closed course. Scary, huh?

At the same time, I don't think the rules and driving are all that difficult to understand or process. In practice, the problem is that it requires people to respect one another's rights without much fear of retribution.

spandexwarrior

Maybe some deer have reflective vests and blinking lights. I think I heard of a deer racing in a time trial last month.

Seriously, Ohio isn't the most friendly place for cyclists. My old home city made the list for the 11 bicycle unfriendly communities mentioned in bicycling magazine's annual bike friend assessment in 2008. https://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/p...60-print.html#

This is a story of an Ohio cop arresting a few cyclists who were doing nothing but riding. The cop conjured up an obviously fake story to justify arresting them for "riding in the road." https://bicycling.com/blogs/roadright...-disobey-cops/

politicalgeek

I think it really depends on where you are. The state itself revised the laws in 03-04 to make cycling laws more universal across the district and solidifying our right to ride in the road.

Central Ohio itself is a great place to ride. Gridded street pattern in most of the city that provides alternatives and city leadership recognizing the need for alternatives to motor vehicle travel-even creating the Bikeways Plan as a guide to improving access across the city. By my count we have at least 4-5 trail projects that are either in planning, design or construction that will connect a large part of our city to the surrounding suburbs. Google a map of Central Ohio and look for Westerville (NE), Canal Winchester (SE) and Reynoldsburg (E). We have one trail way that, when connected and fully built out, will connect all 3 through either the main trail or branch trails.

cofgrn

Man, F the police. That is beyond ridiculous.

spandexwarrior

Good to know that. I was up in Dayton and saw many cyclists. I haven't traveled around Ohio much recently. I'm glad to hear that you people do so much more than Southern Ohio. Apparently, Cleveland ranked #2 in the list of cities with the friendliest drivers. Portland ranked #1. If you have ever ridden in Portland, you understand why. Cincinnati, on the other hand is lost in its typical backward miasma.

Cincinnati was ranked as the worst city for drivers who text message and drive.

Things like this lead to well, more cars and apparently this actually makes travel expensive. Cincinnati is ranked as #6 in Forbes Magazines rankings of cities with the most expensive commutes. Cincinnatians spend 20% of their income on commuting.https://www.forbes.com/2007/08/07/com...hisSpeed=30000

I'd like to see a comparison of a bike friendliness of a city with transportation costs. Sprawl in Greater Cincinnati factors in as well. Maybe sprawl would be good promoting cycling in the city- when it annexes the city of Dayton and other central Ohio regions, we will have more bikes in Cincinnati.

Digital_Cowboy

I agree with you that it should be a felony, how can anyone in their right mind call it a misdemeanor?

Daily Commute

All negligent homicide is a misdemeanor in Ohio. The same applies to drivers. It becomes a felony when the driving is reckless, the driver was drunk, or a number of other factors.