Commuting - 19-year-old driver hits and kills cyclist while downloading ringtones

..and is cited for "improper lane usage". I posted this in the road forums as well, but we seriously should hear about this. This is seriously upsetting.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2006/11/30/woman_is_sentenced_for_bicyclists_death

"..The 25-year-old former Champaign resident, a University of Illinois mechanical engineering graduate working for Caterpillar in Peoria, died on Sept. 8 from head injuries he received Sept. 2 when Stark hit him with her car because she was downloading ring tones to her cell phone instead of paying attention to driving.

Mr. Wilhelm was bicycling north on Illinois 130 east of Urbana when he was struck from behind about 7:15 p.m. Stark was so far off the road that she hit Mr. Wilhelm from behind with the driver's side of her car. He was wearing a helmet."


edit: at the request of slvoid, I've added contact information (http://www.co.champaign.il.us/statt/contacts.htm) for the state attorney.

Office of the State's Attorney
Julia Rietz
State's Attorney
Courthouse 2nd Floor
101 E. Main St.
Urbana, IL 61801

Phone Main (217) 384-3733
Public email Main: statesatty@co.champaign.il.us

Déjà vu!

Julia Rietz (the Prosecutor), shame on you! Shame, shame shame. I'm a graduating law student, and *I* could have made the case for "willful and wanton behavior." Time to find a more suitable career, Ms. Rietz.

First a teenager texting, now a teenager downloading ring tones. WHEN are our legislators going to take distracted driving seriously?

One can only hope the next time she hits someone (and she will since she's a repeat offender). She runs over and kills the State's Attorney child so they they will actually press real charges.

grrr, stuff like this just tightens my jaw.

the driver could have 'no reasonable expectation of a bike on the side of the road,'

Yeah. No reasonable expectation that she just might NOT be the only person on the road????


And everyone thinks I'm kidding when I say I hate people. :mad:

That is horrible. My thoughts go out to the family, encountering drivers such as this is one of my worse fears when biking.

Wow, that makes me very sad to read. I'm not for the death penalty, but honestly, cane-ings for Gen.-Y kids wouldn't be a bad idea.

At first you think nothing much has changed over the years. You may remember sharing narrow two lane, nearly shoulderless highways, up twisting mountains, and along coastal bike routes--from Washington to S. Calif.--with panniers on your bike and maybe a tiny mirror attached to your sunglasses and a Wonder light for nighttime illumination.

However, things have changed. The roads are just as narrow but there probably is four-times the traffic, trailers are wider, motorhome drivers probably are older (marvels of medical science), and young inexperienced drivers are driving bigger cars (e.g., not you old '67 VW), all while using drugs and talking on mobile phones.

The diversion of a mobile phone is something that would have been pretty much impossible before about 1990. I still remember the first mobil phones: they were as big as a lunchbox. Truckers used CBs but you always had the feeling that loggers and chip trucks were so experienced that you probably were safe even when you thought you were being sucked under their wheels.

I know it's a numbers thing and if your number is up . . . but, it really is much more dangerous as a biker on the roads today than it was 20-years ago. I know it shouldn't have to be--and not everyone has the luxury of fairly safe road bike routes that are fun to look forward to (like I do)--but, staying away from traffic as much as possible is the only prudent thing to do.

That simple reality probably is partly responsible for the surge in the popularity of off-road riding over the last 20-years.

Write to Julia Rietz, fax her, email her, phone her. This is absolutely appalling, killing someone is now a petty crime?

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2006/11/30/woman_is_sentenced_for_bicyclists_death

""I am appalled by your conduct and the manner in which you have driven in the short time you've had a license," Klaus told Stark, who had three prior convictions since May 2005 one for disregarding a traffic light and two for speeding. The last speeding conviction came about five weeks before she hit Mr. Wilhelm.

State's Attorney Julia Rietz made the call not to lodge any more serious charge than improper lane usage against Stark, saying that the legal definition of recklessness, to sustain reckless homicide or reckless driving, did not fit her actions.

But Rietz argued for the maximum sentence of six months of conditional discharge a form of probation without reporting to an officer a $1,000 fine and traffic safety school."

Office of the State's Attorney
Julia Rietz
State's Attorney
Office Contact Information
State's Attorney Julia Rietz
Address Main Office
(Adult Diversion, Criminal Division, Domestic Violence Division, Misdemeanor Division, Traffic Division, Victim/Witness Services)
Courthouse 2nd Floor
101 E. Main St.
Urbana, IL 61801
Map & Directions


Civil Division
Brookens Administrative Center
1776 E. Washington St.
Urbana, IL 61802
Map & Directions

Support Enforcement Division
Brookens Administrative Center
1776 E. Washington St.
Urbana, IL 61802
Map & Directions
Phone Main (217) 384-3733
Adult Diversion (217) 384-3802
Civil Division (217) 384-3776
Domestic Violence Division (217) 384-3750
Misdemeanor Division (217) 384-3813
Support Enforcement Div. (217) 384-3849
Traffic Division (217) 384-3815
Victim/Witness Services (217) 384-8625
Fax Main (217) 384-3816
Civil Division (217) 384-3896
Domestic Violence Division (217) 384-6591
Support Enforcement Div. (217) 384-3851
Public email Main: statesatty@co.champaign.il.us
Support Enforcement Division: supportenforcement@co.champaign.il.us
Hours Monday-Friday (except Holidays)
8:00 AM - 4:30 PM

What we need is a penalty system that makes the guilty financially responsible for replacing the lost financial support of the person they killed. That'd be much more just than 6 months and a $1000 fine.

Seriously, I hope she learned her lesson, but why does someone have to die for her to learn it?

I'd like to offer my deepest sympathy to the family and say that although I'm out here in Denver, I'd gladly be willing to travel to do a ride to raise charity/awareness for this guys' family.... anytime, anyplace

TO THE BIKE FORUM MODERATORS: This would be a noble cause to organize a ride for. Perhaps a ride that took place in numerous cities simultaneously

:mad: that's frickin' pathetic.

Is there anyone out there who hasn't had their attention drift and strayed out of their lane, turned improperly, run a red light, etc? Most of these lapses are of no consequence because no one was in the way or someone else took evasive action. I'm thankful my own lapses haven't led to anything worse than embaressment yet, but it is sobering to think what could have been. I suspect that causing the death or injury of another person is a tough thing to live with. It is comforting to know that my bicycle riding isn't likely to kill or injure anyone else. Add another item to the list of positive things about bicycles.

Argh.. stuff like this makes me want to buy a gun. GRRRRRRR~!!!!!!

I need a cold shower now before I melt.


Zero_Enigma

Julia Rietz: If you think you can't prove "wanton and willful" conduct, perhaps you should take a look at Gannon v. Kiel, 252 Ill.App. 550 (1929):

Evidence disclosing that the motorist did not look when it was his duty to be on guard and have his automobile under control at busy street intersection where he was bound to know that pedestrians might be crossing, and that he failed to see pedestrian until his automobile collided with her, supported finding that motorist was guilty of willful and wanton negligence.

I can come up with more cases, if that's not enough for you, Ms. Rietz.

Is there anyone out there who hasn't had their attention drift and strayed out of their lane, turned improperly, run a red light, etc? Most of these lapses are of no consequence because no one was in the way or someone else took evasive action. I'm thankful my own lapses haven't led to anything worse than embaressment yet, but it is sobering to think what could have been. I suspect that causing the death or injury of another person is a tough thing to live with. It is comforting to know that my bicycle riding isn't likely to kill or injure anyone else. Add another item to the list of positive things about bicycles.If this was a simple case of not paying attention, I'd be more sympathetic. But that's not what this case is about. This is a case where the motorist was deliberately engaged in an activity that she knew would take her attention away from driving.

That's so sad and SO messed up that the driver just gets a slap on the wrist.

Well, it looks like it hit the front page over at fark.com (http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2446072), so it's going to get LOTS of publicity.

Warning for those not familiar with Fark:
The Fark forums are not usually a friendly place for the easily offended. In this case *most* of the comments are very sympathetic to the cyclist and his family. That means a lot on that site.


That really makes me want a cell phone jammer (http://www.globalgadgetuk.com/rx9000.htm) in my seatbag. It may be illegal, but so is running me down with a car. That doesn't seem to be an issue any more.

Here's her myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/jenniebob18

Julia Rietz (the Prosecutor), shame on you! Shame, shame shame. I'm a graduating law student, and *I* could have made the case for "willful and wanton behavior." Time to find a more suitable career, Ms. Rietz.

First a teenager texting, now a teenager downloading ring tones. WHEN are our legislators going to take distracted driving seriously?

The legislators already took it seriously a long time ago, as evidenced by codes such as vehicular manslaughter etc etc.

It's the prosecutors and the police that are dropping the ball now.

Here's her myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/jenniebob18

This girl makes me sick to my stomach.

Think about trying to NOT kill people on the road instead of your stupid myspace page.

If you feel like really being aggitated, read her blog post (http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=19792102&blogID=192109572&MyToken=bf951a9d-0fe1-45c1-a97d-4c8bb0d00a69) about how it "sucks" that people dislike her for recklessly killing an innocent commuter.

Here's her myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/jenniebob18

I read the blog entry and comments about this and I feel sick. Here's a lovely example from the comments.

"Too many people in this world judge others based only on their actions, they don't know them at all. That's another of my pet peeves."

Well... One of my pet peeves is people behaving irresponsably and when it hurts someone instead of owning up to what they've done spitting out some lame "everything happens for a reason" excuse. Her god may forgive this young woman but I don't.

this is awful.

Ringtone vs. human life? Honestly, can anyone blame the poor girl for having to make such a difficult decision?

Yeesh. She's another one to go up against the wall when the revolution comes.

She stopped for the cyclist. That's good.

She shouldn't have needed to, though. She shouldn't have hit him.

Maybe it's not driver's licenses we neet, maybe it's cellular phone licenses.

What we need is a penalty system that makes the guilty financially responsible for replacing the lost financial support of the person they killed. That'd be much more just than 6 months and a $1000 fine.

Seriously, I hope she learned her lesson, but why does someone have to die for her to learn it?

Couldn't the family sue her in civil court for damages and lost wages?
I would think that at the very least they could make this young women uninsurable.

The attorney, she's pretty lax eh..
http://www.illinipundit.com/2005/08/05/will-outrage-follow/

If this was a simple case of not paying attention, I'd be more sympathetic. But that's not what this case is about. This is a case where the motorist was deliberately engaged in an activity that she knew would take her attention away from driving.

That seems so sensible, and logical, I can't see why anyone would think otherwise.

How is it possible to not know that downloading ring tones is going to take your attention away from driving ? I have down loaded ring tones for my phone, I would never even think about trying it in the car it's absurd.

After reading her blog post and the ensuing comments of support, I was dismayed that I couldn't tell her to kill herself b/c I don't have a myspace account. She didn't learn a thing.

Couldn't the family sue her in civil court...Absolutely.

I have down loaded ring tones for my phone, I would never even think about trying it in the car it's absurd.

Now THAT is surprising. Why on earth would you waste your money on that. :p

Couldn't the family sue her in civil court for damages and lost wages?
I would think that at the very least they could make this young women uninsurable.

I hope they sue the f**k outta her.

Absolutely.

I hope they do. All this girl keeps talking about his how she feels, sounds like she has yet to take any responsibility for her actions. Maybe after her insurance company drops her and she can't afford to insure her car anymore she'll finally be off the road long enough for her to grow up.

After reading her blog post and the ensuing comments of support, I was dismayed that I couldn't tell her to kill herself b/c I don't have a myspace account. She didn't learn a thing.

Can't get the word "insipid" out of my mind. And this is in the wake of her killing someone....the whole thing is nauseating.

Now THAT is surprising. Why on earth would you waste your money on that. :p

:lol:

I have way too much time on my hands. :p

I can't believe it. I read one of her wiaries (I detest the word "blog"). She is a whiney little snotnosed kid. Take responsiblity for your actions. Sure, it sucks for you that you're "marked."

The other guy, though, let me tell you, is marked a lot worse.

Things like this make it difficult not to hate humans...

Thanks for posting the link to the Myspace.

Her blog post makes me sick.

"Too many people in this world judge others based only on their actions, they don't know them at all. That's another of my pet peeves."

Well... One of my pet peeves is people behaving irresponsably and when it hurts someone instead of owning up to what they've done spitting out some lame "everything happens for a reason" excuse. Her god may forgive this young woman but I don't.

THIS is so true. I know a lot of people, and I base EVERYONE on their actions. Isn't that how you judge one another? How else, by there haircut? clothes? choice of ringtones?

But instead of teaching someone a lesson, let's pat'em on the head, and send them on their merry way. I wonder if she uses that ringtone? Probably does as a reminder of 'her' bad luck; shes been through so much heartache! Sadly watching the decline of society, one ringtone at a time...

Maybe we should do as MLK Jr. said and judge her on the content of her character. From what we can tell on her blog, I'd say our judgements have been spot on. She deserves to have "Killer" tattooed on her forehead. The comments of support for her make me sick too.

Sick, sick, sick, sick, sick. I'm going to write to Reitz on paper, and I hope you all do, too - and I'm also making a resolution (and putting it on Google Calendar so I remember!) to send "Jennie Bob" a note next year on Oct 8th to remind her what she did. Politely, of course - but I doubt very much, reading her blog, that she has the personal character required to remember on her own and to change her behavior accordingly.

How can someone be so friggin stupid? How can one have the balls to take a life because they were being completely absent minded and post things or even think of things like "how I feel" or "poor me"?? People that are as stupid as this remind me why I hate people.

We had a similar accident here this summer. Guy from one of the lbs was riding on this 2 lane secondary hwy that is known for cycling in the summer. Guy in oncoming car came across the road and struck him killing him instantly. Turns out the guy in the car was having a seizure and had no control. I couldn't imagine what he feels everyday. Makes you feel sorry for him. This stupid girl should be locked up with no friggin myspace or cell phone:mad: :mad: :mad:
What the hell is wrong with people she knows too? How can anyone dare feel sorry for her? She brought this on herself. I say suffer. You can bet his family is because of her actions.

Is there anyone out there who hasn't had their attention drift and strayed out of their lane, turned improperly, run a red light, etc? Most of these lapses are of no consequence because no one was in the way or someone else took evasive action. I'm thankful my own lapses haven't led to anything worse than embaressment yet, but it is sobering to think what could have been. I suspect that causing the death or injury of another person is a tough thing to live with. It is comforting to know that my bicycle riding isn't likely to kill or injure anyone else. Add another item to the list of positive things about bicycles.

Not paying attention cause you're downloading a ringtone is total negligence. I have no sympathy for her. Ban all damn cell phones while driving! PERIOD. You think she feels bad cause she killed someone? -- I'll bet it's not as bad as his family feels.

downloading ringtones! now I've heard it all!

couldn't she have waited to download a frigging ringtone until AFTER she was done controlling a 2-ton hunk of metal?

this is beyond negligent, it's downright sociopathic as far as I'm concerned. of course she gets a slap on the wrist.

reading her blog makes me even madder. no remorse whatsoever, all she cares about is what people think of her.

I think I've heard the name Julia Rietz before, matter of fact I think she was on here once defending the way she handled a similar previous case. maybe she'll sound off on this thread also.

This girl's license needs to be taken away for good in all states. She needs something that will remind her for the rest of her life what she did. Maybe one day, she'll try cycling to work and realize how people like her can be scary for bicyclists.

The attorney is a wuss. Vehicular manslaughter at least. Her actions were criminally neglegent. I'm not one for advocating killing another human, but an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. At the very least, cut her hands off so she can't use a cell phone anymore.

Did you see the related story?
Wilhelms push legislators for distracted driving measure?
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2006/11/30/wilhelms_push_legislators_for_distracted_driving_measure

At the bottom there is this sick but sort of funny ad by Google:

Police Officer Ringtone
Send this ringtone to your phone right now!

Is that context sensitive advertising or what?

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=166956&page=2&highlight=rietz

this judge was indeed on the forum and was also involved in another cycling death case. she must have one hell of a county, 2 dead cyclists in a year. im so glad i went to UIC (chicago) rather than urbana.

I have mixed feelings about this. SHe did throw the book at the guy in this case and in her post sounds concerned. but in this case she just let that useless biatch fly.

This type of thing is why I quit commuting. People are in too much of a hurry to pay attention to someone on a bike and have too much to do other than paying attention to their driving. I get so pissed off when I'm driving behind someone and they are all over the road because they are replying to an email, reading papers or fiddling with their IPod. I usually lay on my horn until they get the hint. I'm going to hack her myspace page....

That really makes me want a cell phone jammer (http://www.globalgadgetuk.com/rx9000.htm) in my seatbag. It may be illegal, but so is running me down with a car. That doesn't seem to be an issue any more.


I thought about getting one of those, too, but then again it might distract drivers even more. If someone is talking on their cell phone, and it goes dead, what do they do? Take it off their ear, look at it, press buttons and redial. Just what I don't want them doing as they approach me.

This whole thing is just disgusting. Here in DC, it actually IS illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving. But, riding home, it's easier to count the drivers who aren't talking on phones than the ones who are. I've also seen drivers watching television while driving. And I've seen, twice, cops writing tickets for cell phone driving. In both cases, the drivers were incredulous.

What's really sad is to think that people are so bored by everyday life, that they need some form of entertainment glued to their senses at all times.