lumis

This guy just Killed 2 people on bikes in his truck while driving drunk... thats bad enough but he did the same thing back in 2005. and beyond that the guy he Killed in 2005 his Wife was killed while riding her bike (unrelated) almost exactly 1 year prior

https://wkrg.com/news/article/teen_ch...cyclists/4955/

TRaffic Jammer

Sounds like a serial killer has been taken off the road.

nova

Don't know about a serial killer but its about time some one gets nailed good and hard for this sort of thing. And while i hate that this happened not once but twice I am glad that this will make it easier for people to get brought up on murder charges for such acts.

Falkon 

This one hits close. There is a ride of silence planned.

What this has surely done is taken an irresponsible person off the road. It's a shame that it took three deaths for it to happen, but he is being charged with two counts of murder.

Bikepacker67

Sounds like the family of the first victim (2005) didn't want to pursue adult manslaughter charges against the then underage azzhole.

More proof that no good deed goes unpunished.

oscaregg

Why are "people" like this driver not stalked and harassed by local cyclists? We're just too damn nice sometimes. This creature should be driven into a suicidal depression which he will hopefully act on.

SirMike1983 

We can all rest easy- he's off the road now, and it only took three deaths for that to happen.

AEO

Drunk driving. Irresponsible and reckless behavior that anyone is capable of. I'm surprised he was even allowed to drive in the first place after the first offense.

nymtber

i have an idea for congress:

One DWI = no more license EVER.

i wont drive after more than one, and even with one i wont drive for at least an hour. But i dont really touch alcohol unless i dont plan on going anywhere either, or if my girlfriend is driving

driving while your drunk is dumb, and should be punished to the highest extent.

Hickeydog

Well, I forget were, but some where in Latin America, your first DUI is also your last. Yup. that's right. EXOCUTION!!!!!


Ok. Granted, that is a bit harsh, but I do agree with the first DUI means you don't get to drive EVER again. It is a completely foolish choice to drink and drive.

Kurt Erlenbach

Driving while distracted, on a cell phone, or while sleepy is just as dangerous and just as voluntary as driving while drunk. Would you feel better if you child were killed by a driver on a cell phone, or who fell asleep at the wheel, as opposed to a drunk driver? The focus on drunk driving is good, but too narrow. Voluntarily driving while impaired is the problem.

invisiblehand

While not proof, I recall that there was some experimental evidence--maybe with a driving simulation--on a show like 60 minutes. Unfortunately, I do not recall enough details to do a good web search at the moment. But I will give it some effort in the next few days.

I can't remember whether the risk is equal ... but I recall something more like it is comparable.

EDIT: I am not referring to the "just as voluntary" part of the quote.

genec

There are studies (search the web) that show that a cell phone user does not "recover" the moment the call is completed. A minute or two later, yes, but the distraction effects are more intense than apparently most users realize.

Steele-Bike

I am thinking this wasn't the first time this guy had drove drunk since is last arrest. Obviously, his friends and family would have been aware that he had an alcohol problem.

The other day I was walking with my young daughter and the neighbor and her daughter. We were walking on the sidewalk pass the car wash. As we approached the entrance drive, I noticed a car pulling out of the wash bay about 50 feet away. This car continued to head on a direct path at us until I screamed as loud as I could for several seconds. Finally, this guy slammed his breaks on and stopped a few feet from us. It was a high school guy with three other friends in the car. How can someone drive backwards for 50 feet and never look for what may be in their way? Imagine adding alcohol into the mix and things would have been much worse.

Unfortunately, there is a never ending supply of idiots. Natural selection just doesn't work fast enough.

jsonnabend

How's this (I think it's an even better point). https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-doc062306.php

TRaffic Jammer

Distracted drivers are indeed an issue on par with drunk driving, celly driving is illegal in many places for this reason....not even hands free as the very act of having a conversation can take your mind off driving.

filtersweep

I bet he intentionally ran them over.... otherwise, what are the odds?

TRaffic Jammer

You don't generally drink and drive then run people over AGAIN if it really bothered you the first time you killed someone. Hmmm that was kinda fun...made me feel powerful I think I'll go for two this time.

seeker333

The Myth Busters show on Discovery channel devoted nearly an entire show to the drunk driving vs cellphone driving issue. They evaluated 2 different drivers on an obstacle course with a CHP officer riding along rating performance as they negotiated course.

They did the "driving with cellphone" eval first with both drivers. Then each driver drank individual drinks and measured BAC with CHP breathalyzer device until reached 0.08% BAC, then repeated road course evaluation.

Both drivers performed significantly worse with cellphone than drunk. It was a pretty convincing episode.

This result shouldn't be much of a surprise since many healthy, younger people can drive themselves home reasonably well after consuming 3-4 drinks. There's an entire restaurant/bar industry which thrives in spite of this fact that their business success depends on the willingness of most of their customers to break the law on drunk driving.

I believe talking on a cellphone is a serious compromise of safe driving, and would gladly vote to ban their use in any moving motor vehicle. I've had a number of very close calls while bicycling where the "talking and driving" motorist was looking straight at me in clear daylight, yet still didn't see me, even though they were so close I could reach out and touch their vehicle. In fact I once "snapped" and lightly patted the fender/hood of a car going 15mph straight at me on wrong side of road. Driver had a shocked look on their face, as if I had suddenly appeared out of thin air.

"Beam me down next to that suv Scotty"

BTW, taking peoples licenses away is not effective in stopping them from driving. They still have to work, eat, live etc - so until an acceptable transportation alternative is available to them (bikes don't count as reasonable alt. to most people) they'll still drive. You'd have to impound their car and all their relatives and bf/gf's cars to keep them from driving.

dynodonn 

Just had an incident here, where 4 young adults where killed when the car they were in, traveling at a high rate of speed, went over a long steep embankment. The driver was DUI at the time, and driving on a suspended/revoked license from a previous DUI that involved a 100 mph pursuit. The DUI driver lived, and was just recently arrested when he was released from the hospital on 4 counts of homicide.