SluttyDuck

https://www.thedailytimes.com/sited/story/html/262487

Makes me sick, but lucky to be alive. That is not too far from where I was hit.

Trek Al

The driver the vehicle was charged. Newspaper article follows:



Man charged in hit-and-run
2006-08-12
by Anna C. Irwin
of The Daily Times Staff

The man at the wheel of a pickup truck that struck and killed a bicyclist Wednesday has been charged with criminal homicide.

Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp said Tommy Lee Carroll, 46, Vinegar Valley Road, Friendsville, was notified Friday that a warrant had been obtained by traffic investigators.

``He came in around 5 p.m. to face the charge,'' Crisp said.

Records at the Blount County Jail show Carroll was booked at 7:24 p.m. and released on a $75,000 bond at 8:45 p.m. A hearing is set at 9 a.m. Aug. 15 in Blount County General Sessions Court.

The bicyclist -- 48-year-old Jeffrey Edward Roth -- was riding on the shoulder of West Lamar Alexander Parkway near North Union Grove Road when Carroll's 1999 Chevrolet pickup truck left the road and struck the bicycle. Witnesses said the truck crossed into the eastbound lanes and kept traveling toward Friendsville, leaving the crumpled bicycle and critically injured rider on the roadway.

Carroll's truck sideswiped another pickup truck and was stopped when the driver of a larger utility truck intentionally maneuvered into his path in the eastbound lanes and was struck head-on.

Roth died at University of Tennessee Medical Center where he was flown by Lifestar medical helicopter.

Carroll was taken to Blount Memorial Hospital by Rural/Metro Ambulance Service. A blood sample was taken for toxicology testing, then Carroll refused treatment and left the emergency room.

Crisp said his officers impounded Carroll's truck and interviewed him as well as several other witnesses to the series of accidents spread over a three-mile stretch of West Lamar Alexander Parkway. Once the investigation was completed, the District Attorney General's Office advised the accident investigators of possible charges that might be filed against Carroll. The warrant was drawn and Carroll was notified, then surrendered.

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Sounds like he was drunk or did this on purpose.
Wilburn Arp (The guy who stopped him with his own truck), I'll buy you a beer if I ever meet you.

Falkon 

Though the loss of a life is a terrible tragedy. This case is an advancement to all who call themselves cyclists. I am happy that the law has not blown this off.

Trek Al

A memorial ride was held yesterday, here is an another article from the local newspaper.

Fallen bicyclist honored
2006-08-14
by Iva Butler
of The Daily Times Staff

Approximately 200 turned out Sunday afternoon for the ``Ride of Silence'' in honor of a bicycle rider hit by a truck and killed last week in Maryville.

It was also to raise awareness of cyclists on the road.

Jeffrey Roth, 48, Rambling Road, Maryville, was riding his bicycle Wednesday on West Lamar Alexander Parkway (U.S. 321) when he was hit by a truck driven by Tommy Lee Carroll, 46, Vinegar Valley Road, Friendsville.

Roth was taken by Rural/Metro Ambulance Service to Blount Memorial Hospital and then flown to University of Tennessee Medical Center, where he died a short time later.

Carroll has been charged with criminal homicide.

Joe Black, a local physical therapist and athletic trainer at Appalachian Therapy and avid bicyclist, participated in the ride.

``It was low-key and very respectful. It was billed as a silent ride out of respect. The family lined the highway on one stretch, not quite where the accident happened,'' he said.

Relatives held up a large blown-up photograph of the whole family: Jeffrey; his wife, Kathryn Roth; daughters, Noelle, 7, and twins, Hope and Lilly, 5.

The family had to leave before the ride was over.

``The funeral was at 3 p.m. Sunday. Everybody was touched that they were there at all. It was such a tough time for them. The fact that they were there was special. Nobody really expected them,'' Black said.

``There was a dark area on the road so everybody knew where he had laid. Nobody was chit-chatty. Everybody was moved by the whole thing,'' he said.

Steve Hicks, a Maryville resident who works for a Knox electrical engineering firm, is a friend of the Roth family.

Of the ride he said, ``it was incredible. That kind outpouring of love and compassion with not much notice pretty much floored me.''

He had to leave early for the funeral.

``The thing that touched me the most after everything was said and done Sunday was when me and my wife went back down 321. All the riders had left the black armbands that they were wearing where he was killed. It just touched my heart that those people thought that much of him,'' Hicks said.

Black, who lives near Friendsville but has a Maryville address, did not know Jeffrey Roth, ``despite the fact that he was a physical therapist. I had met him once before. He seems like the kind of guy I would liked to have known and made friends with.''

The idea for the ride started with Jim Wachter, president of the KnoxVelo Bike Club. Riders were recruited through networking with the Foothills Striders, two local bike shops (Mountain View Bicycles, and Cycology Bicycles) and several Maryville and Knox area bicyclists.

While many were from Knoxville, riders were heavily from Maryville. ``I knew half the crowd, probably,'' Black said.

The age range went from 10 year olds to ``a man in his 80s, a casual biker wearing khaki pants and a polo shirt,'' he said.

``The ride went real slow to try and keep everybody together. It started at Partnership Park South, went down 321, right on North Grey Ridge Road, right at where the accident occurred, out to Ed Davis Road, back Long Hollow Road to 321. It was a four-mile loop, and we did it three times. It took about an hour and 20 minutes,'' he said.

In addition to being a way to show respect for a fellow rider, the ride was ``to call awareness to the fact we do need to share the road. Bicycles do belong out here. It's a good exercise and good form of transportation, More and more people are commuting on bicycles. As cost of gas goes up, I think there will be more and more every day,'' Black said.

There are a lot of country lanes to ride on in this area.

While most drivers that bicyclists encounter are ``very respectful and give them plenty of room,'' he said some drivers are rude.

``I wish I had a dollar for every time I was told to get off the (expletive deleted) road. It has never happened to me, but I hear about people throwing bottles at you. A bottle coming at you 40 or 50 miles per hour is a deadly weapon,'' Black said.

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Why do none of these articles speak to intent?
Its damn annoying, I want to know if he was drunk or did it on purpose.

Trek Al

The police have not released any information, though they did take blood at the hospital for testing. A preliminary court date is set for tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. I don't expect it to be anything other than for him to give a plea to the charges. There will probably not be any information released by authorities until the actual trial. It is likely they don't want to give out any information they have, so as to not help the defendant. I'm very interested in what the actual charge will be. Tennnessee law provides for six charges under criminal homicide. They are first degree murder, second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, vehicular homicide, and reckless homicide. The Knoxville area bicycle clubs as well as the local media are watching this very closely. It has become a high profile case. Several representatives of the clubs will be attending the court proceeding tomorrow.

Al

KnoxBreezer

From the linked story:

----------------------------

Witnesses said the truck was being driven erratically before it struck the bicycle, and was weaving back and forth between lanes, off into the grass in the median, then off onto the shoulder. According to a police report, the truck hit the cyclist and knocked the rider onto the hood and windshield of the truck. The rider was carried some distance before he came off the truck and onto the pavement.

Despite a broken windshield, the truck crossed the parkway and into the eastbound lane while continuing west and out of town. Witnesses followed and notified authorities of the hit-and-run vehicle's location.

Near the Long Hollow Road intersection with West Lamar Alexander Parkway, Carroll's truck, still traveling west in the eastbound lanes, collided with another truck. A 2000 Chevrolet 1500 pickup driven by William D. Pritchett, West Vinegar Valley Road, Friendsville, was damaged on the left front, side and rear.

Carroll's truck kept going after the sideswipe with Pritchett's truck and witnesses continued to follow.

The flight from the scene of the collision with the bicycle continued until Carroll's truck collided head-on with a 2003 Ford F-550 utility truck driven by Wilburn Arp, Janeway Road, Maryville.

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So essentially this driver strikes the cyclist, drives with him on the hood for a distance, crosses a median, side-swipes another car, ends up in a citizen based pursuit (witnesses were trying to catch him), and only comes to a stop when another motorist intentially hits him head on.

The police didn't file charges for three days, and they let the offending motorist leave the hospital after he refused treatment. <--- THAT makes me sick.

I'm very familiar with this stretch of road. Our tandem shop is located on this hwy near Maryville. I didn't hear about the memorial ride until after the fact. I wish my wife and I could have attended.

Blue Order

Better that they gather evidence and consult with the D.A. as to which charges are supported by the facts and the evidence than to charge him in haste and have a problem later.

KnoxBreezer

Agreed, but TN has 6 distinctly different forms of "criminal homicide," none of the news articles say which one he's being charged with.

I guess my major problem was that they didn't hold the motorist, they just let him leave the hospital. "You ain't goin' no-where, right boy?" I can just hear it... I mean the guy tried to flee, AND hit several other cars in the process, shouldn't any one of these be enough to charge him on one of those counts and haul his butt to the pokie?

Blue Order

I agree. He could easily have gone out and killed again, assuming he was drunk, which is what I'm assuming, or he could easily have fled. In either instance, it would be preferable to keep him locked up until they file charges and deterine the bail amount, if any. The only drawback I see to that is that they have a limited amount of time in which to file charges or release, but surely they coulfd have figured out the proper charges within that time limit.

Trek Al

The case was postponed until Sept. 29, 2006. Copy of the article from the Knoxville newspaper.

Driver of truck that hit cyclist is on medication for epilepsy

By ROBERT WILSON, rlwilson2594@msn.com
August 16, 2006


MARYVILLE - Jeffrey E. Roth may not have even known in the last few seconds of his life what was about to happen.
For him, it was just another 60-mile bicycle ride like those he had undertaken many times, on a road where the shoulder is 12 feet wide and clearly marked with "Bike Route" signs. The August sun was still high and relentless, combined with high humidity.

The police reports, in their detached and remote manner, tell how an extra-large pickup truck, rolling westward down a four-lane divided highway with a 65 mph speed limit, hit Roth and his bicycle from behind, costing him his life.

The police reports do not, however, reflect that the incident also cost a 7-year-old second-grader and her 5-year-old twin sisters their father. Or made a widow of a young mother.

Kathryn Roth, standing in a Blount County Justice Center hallway outside the courtroom Tuesday where the driver of the pickup truck was to face the court, finds the words hard to get out when asked how her daughters - the ones she refers to as "his girls" - are holding up.

Inside the courtroom, a continuance was issued in the preliminary hearing of Tommy L. Carroll, 46, of Friendsville, until Sept. 29 at 9 a.m. Carroll, who is free on $75,000 bond, is charged with criminal homicide in connection with Roth's Aug. 9 death on U.S. Highway 321 on the west end of Maryville.

The prime issue in the case is whether it is a tragic accident resulting from the medical impairment of the truck driver or from a disregard for the rights of a bicycler.

The incident has churned up unrest in the biking community, which turned out in force Sunday for a "Ride in Silence" to remember Roth, after which many of the 200 riders tied their black armbands on a road sign near the accident scene.

Before court Tuesday, a group of 10 riders rode from Cycology Bicycles in Maryville to the Justice Center to show their support for the Roth family and their desire for justice.

Defense attorney Billy Gribble, speaking on behalf of his client after leaving the courtroom, said Carroll is intensely regretful of what happened and offers his condolences to the Roth family.

The attorney said Carroll has epilepsy and has taken medication to prevent him from having a seizure for many years. Gribble said Carroll does not remember the accident and that it may be that the epilepsy is responsible for the tragedy.

Carroll, he said, has a valid driver's license.

Gribble, following the court date, acknowledged that his client hit Roth, then crossed the median, hit another truck and was stopped by a third motorist who used his truck to stop Carroll's.

But he said a legal distinction prevents that series of events from being considered "fleeing the scene of an accident," as has been alleged, if the accident was caused by a medical condition.

Kathryn Roth said she has been overwhelmed and gratified by the outpouring of "love and honor" from the bicycle community following her husband's death.

"He was just getting to know more bicyclers."

Gribble said the investigation into what happened is just beginning.

KnoxBreezer

If the motorist is excused because of this medical condition.... christ...

I was under the impression that if you took mediction for seizures then you had your liscense suspended? I had a friend who suffered seizers for a short period of time and he had his liscense suspended until he was "cleared" by the doctors.

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At the very least, they tell you not to friggin drive for a while if there are potental issues. They even do it with OTC sleep med fer chrissake. With a prescription, if the doctor did not watch this very carefully, he committed malpractice.
If this was a med issue, the guy either ignored his doctor and drove when he shouldn't or neglected to mention earlier problems to his doc. Neither of these make him innocent. I'm normally more forgiving than most people here, but this guy needed to be more careful with what he took while driving, and his lack of care killed a man. No sympathy. This is of course assuming that the medication arguement is even true, though it smacks of BS.

Brate

Your correct in many cases once seizure free for x amount of time an individual may get their driving rights back. This happened to my mother-in-law the Doc gave her 6 months with no driving, now seizure free for 8 months she is again driving but must take her prescribed meds daily.

sentinel4675

There is a lot to this case we don't know to be able to make a proper judgement. As a fatal crash investigator, from what I read in the report, there was something that was causing this prior driving errors. I don't know what they are yet and neither does anyone else here. If there was alcohol involved in this crash at the beginning, I would like to think the police would have locked him up. Sometimes the drug issue is a bit harder. It takes blood tests for drugs a bit longer to get tested. It sounds like once they were ready,they did arrest him. The bond was a pretty good one because the judges in my area don't know what a high bond is.