We learned yesterday that the sentencing of Dr. Christopher Thompson, the man convicted of six felonies including assault with a deadly weapon—his car—after he seriously injured several bicyclists in Los Angeles’ Mandeville Canyon, has been delayed until January 8, 2010.
While I am not happy about the delay, it does give us one more chance to remind fellow cyclists to join Dave Zabriskie’s letter writing campaign to ensure that Thompson gets the appropriate sentence. The maximum sentence is 10 years, but the judge could sentence Thompson to as little as probation. This is particularly possible because Thompson’s supporters have organized…
After a deadly bicycle accident, San Jose is exploring a law to make the city the first in California – and possibly the country – to address the issue of bicyclists riding with leashed dogs.
Councilwoman Nancy Pyle is convening a meeting Wednesday night to gauge public opinion on whether the city should revise current leash laws in some way to prevent what happened to Beverly Head on Sept. 16. The retired 62-year-old San Jose phlebotomist died as a result of a head injury after being tangled up in a dog leash while walking along a popular South San…
The San Francisco Bay Area cycling community suffered a tragic loss last November when Mark Pendleton, a loving husband and father to two sons, was struck by a car while riding his bike. The driver of the vehicle did not stop and Pendleton died along the side of a road. As Bay Area bike attorneys, we’ve supported local law enforcement in their efforts to find and prosecute the motorist responsible for the serious bike accident.
Just over six months after the accident, the suspected driver of the vehicle, Harold Brown, was arrested by the CHP. Brown was booked…
As bicyclists, all were shocked in March 2008 to learn the horrible news that Santa Clara Sheriff’s Deputy James Council had crashed into several innocent bicyclists, causing the wrongful death of two riders, and badly injuring a third. As a bicycle accident attorney who handles many cases for riders against public entities, I was surprised and pleased when Santa Clara County actually accepted responsibility for this tragic bicycle crash. In tough economic times, it seems even more rare for individuals or institutions to accept liability, and extremely rare for them to make themselves financially accountable.
We reported last month…
Sacramento ranks high in auto accidents, drunk driving
I was dismayed earlier this week when the California Office of Traffic Safety [OTS] released its yearly ranking of 13 cities of similar size, including Sacramento, Oakland and San Francisco, for collisions by daily vehicle miles traveled and average population.
The numbers for 2008 are not yet available, but for 2007, our great state’s capital, Sacramento, ranked No. 1 in many categories related to auto collisions and drunk driving deaths and, extremely disturbing to us, bicycle injuries and fatalities. As Sacramento and Northern California personal injury attorneys, we hope that accountability…
