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Apparently the plea deal happened a month ago but I just saw it mentioned on the news this morning (maybe the sentence finally went through). The often-used "didn't know I hit someone" defense.
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/crime … 3713ce5d59
Former Austin ISD officer Adam Marsh took a plea deal Friday afternoon for his alleged involvement in a hit-and-run that was caught on camera back in February 2018.
He took a no-contest plea, meaning he neither disputes or admits to the charge. Court records show the original charge in the case was "accident involving serious bodily injury."
Marsh has three years of deferred adjudication and must surrender his peace officer license.
...
He must do 80 hours of community service and can never be a police officer again.
Prosecutor Matt Foye said he thinks the agreement is appropriate based on what he would have been able to prove in court.
"We have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knew they were in a collision in which a person reasonably could have been injured," said Foye.
If you live in or ride through Georgetown, council will soon vote on a 10-year $20million plan to add 51 miles of bike lanes and paths around the city. Several public meetings and votes throughout this fall:
UT not liable, bicyclist trespassing when university truck hit her, court finds
https://today.statesman.com/express/fri … 18--2019/9
on Friday, the Texas Supreme Court dismissed Garner's case in a unanimous ruling, reversing the lower court's ruling and holding that the Recreational Use Statute does apply, maintaining UT's immunity from lawsuit.
The opinion: https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1444971/180740.pdf
Riding a bicycle on campus (or any state property) shields the state from ordinary negligence claims. Doesn't matter if commuting or not:
To the extent Garner argues that she was bicycling on Alvin for transportation rather than recreational
purposes, her subjective intent does not control... Under the statute’s plain language, bicycling is recreation."
Two examples:
The stretch of Escarpment Blvd by Mills Elementary has bike lanes marked with the bicycle-arrow symbol, but allows parking. Most (all?) of the rest of Escarpment has No Parking signs, but that segment does not.
I think all of Lost Creek boulevard still allows parking.
This is a car-car story, but I thought it was interesting because we rarely hear about hit & run suspects being caught.
The Lone Star Fugitive Task Force has made an arrest in the death of Illianna Martinez in Traffic Fatality #14 from March 21, 2019. Jorge A. Granados was arrested in Slidell, Louisiana on Tuesday, April 16, 2019. He will be extradited back to Austin to stand trial. He is currently charged with failure to stop and render aid, second degree felony.
The preliminary investigation shows that a 2013, blue Dodge Ram was traveling eastbound on Teri Rd. approaching Palo Blanco Ln. A 2010, gold Toyota Venza was traveling northbound on Palo Blanco, turning left onto Teri Rd. The Ram hit the Venza on the left side. All occupants of the Ram fled on foot. All occupants of the Venza were transported to Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas. The juvenile female, Illianna Martinez, died on March 30, 2019 at 4:26 p.m.
Deceased: Illianna Martinez, Hispanic female, D.O.B. 12-12-13
Arrested: Jorge A. Granados, Hispanic male, 22 years of age
Are you one of the cyclists quoted?
Oh no, sorry, that was ambiguous. I'm not in the news story.
The story made the news:
"Cyclist warns of dangerous new bike trail in North Austin"
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/cycli … a413256c9e
Might need to move this one under the "Roadway Hazards" category!
It's complete, but apparently they couldn't get right-of-way between the train track and the road. Instead, the bike path crosses the service road turnaround twice on blind corners. http://www.mopacexpress.com/multimedia/ … %20SUP.pdf
photos courtesy jincopunk on reddit:
https://www.mapillary.com/app/?focus=ph … 583&zoom=0
Per the statesman in November, B-cycle revenue and ridership downtown was down 40% last year. https://www.statesman.com/news/20181120 … me-to-town
In current news, B-cycle is expanding to the Domain: https://domain.bcycle.com/ https://communityimpact.com/austin/nort … he-domain/
Note the Domain pricing strategy: a single-trip "$1 to start" ride option like dockless bikes/scooters (+$2 per 30 minutes). Bcycle Austin still only has a $12 day pass as the cheapest option listed.
CTRMA's 183 North project is in the news as ramping up again. Not a lot of major bike infrastructure planned but it will certainly help close dangerous (and deadly) gaps for cyclists and pedestrians in northwest Austin.
https://communityimpact.com/austin/nort … st-austin/
http://www.183north.com/about/
An 8-foot wide Shared Use Path to connect the Jollyville Road bike lanes to the bike lanes on Pond Springs, a distance of approximately 1,600 feet.
An 8-foot wide Shared Use Path from bike lanes on Pond Springs to the bike lanes on Lake Creek Parkway adjacent to the US 183 northbound frontage road, a distance of approximately 2,600 feet.
Sidewalks along the US 183 northbound and southbound frontage roads from RM 620/SH 45N to Loop 360 in locations where sidewalks do not currently exist.
Cross street connections for bicyclists consisting of 5-foot bike lanes in each direction, created by re-striping the existing cross street pavement to narrow the traffic lanes to 11 feet each.
ID'd as 39-year-old Anthony "Tony" Diaz, a Fox7 employee & Navy vet.
http://www.fox7austin.com/news/local-ne … f-employee
I presume we'll get more followup news than usual for this story. Fox posted a call for witnesses--4 of the 8 bus riders left before police arrived.
http://www.fox7austin.com/news/local-ne … -bus-crash
The crash happened in a well-lit area with a speed limit of 15 miles per hour. It was a cold, windy night and the road was mostly clear of vehicles. Tony was riding his bike a few feet from the curb through empty angled parked spaces.
Questions about why the crash occurred could not be immediately answered by police, but they said Tony took every precaution and surveillance videos showed no indication that he did anything to cause the crash. “He was following all the things that you would expect bicyclists to do. He was wearing a helmet, lights on the bicycle, both front facing light as well as a rear blinking red tail light were on the bicycle, that's what you would expect,” said UTPD Chief David Carter.
The new lane on 5th Street west of MoPac is similar to the bus-priority lanes on Guadalupe and Lavaca Streets. Working with Cap Metro, the Austin Transportation Department is converting a bike lane that ran all the way to Lamar Blvd into a dedicated bus & bike lane for a half-mile section between West Lynn and Baylor Streets.
Shooter got 7 years, eligible for release 6/8/2024
Driver got probation on 11/30/18. (i don't know if there is a free way to find out how long the probation is) C-1-CR-17-204817
Davis charged with 3rd degree felony intoxication assault w/ vehicle, next court date 1/27 for "APR" whatever that is.
Driver in first crash (Bykowski) charged with 3rd degree felony: INTOXICATION ASSAULT W/VEHICLE SERIOUS BODILY INJURY
Second driver (Garcia) only charged with DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED 2ND, a class A misdemeanor.
Both still in pretrial hearings.
The schedule on the city's Country Club Creek webpage now says construction on the bridge and final stabilization won't even BEGIN until 2021. :-/
The City began Preliminary Engineering in July 2018 and is currently identifying needs and issues for the construction of a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge crossing Lady Bird Lake near Longhorn Dam. A public meeting will be held to collect feedback on needs and potential interim improvements for Longhorn Bridge.
The public meeting will be held at Fiesta Gardens on Tuesday, Nov. 13, from 6-7:30 p.m.
Public Works and Austin Transportation staff will introduce the project and provide the overview and planning history surrounding it.
This will be the first of three meetings for the project. Alternatives for the final design of the bridge will be presented at the second meeting, followed by a final recommendation at the third meeting.
On Tuesday, the Public Works Department lifted the barricades on the short section of the trail that traces the creek on its bend from West Fifth Street to West Avenue.
It allows hikers and bikers to easily traverse the section for the first time since a deadly flood washed it out on Memorial Day in 1981.
...
The city will hold an official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Shoal Creek Gap Project at 300 West Ave. at 10 a.m. on May 16.
The rider recovered enough to get back on her bike... and was injured in a hit-and-run last week!
Austin police said McKibben was struck by Richard Garcia's vehicle on the morning of April 3 at Lightsey Road and South Congress Avenue. Garcia was arrested and charged with failure to stop and render aid.
CTRMA approved a bid last week for various Mopac improvements, including a 10-ft wide shared-use path that will run from the north end of Shoal Creek Blvd, west along the 183 frontage road, and north to Neils Thompson Drive (more or less following the existing dirt trail there).
I didn't see this posted here yet, but the US 183 South toll&expansion project includes a new shared-use path on one side and sidewalk on the other along its entire length. If the maps are correct, the path will connect from the existing 290/Manor path, all the way to the new-ish path on the north side of 71.
https://www.183south.com/multimedia/detail
If you don't pass through the area regularly, you can also see the path going in in some of the construction photos: https://www.183south.com/multimedia/photos
No prison after all--Davison was released for time served in county jail (404 days)
TxDoT is reconstructing the Stassney and William Cannon bridges. Schematics show the Stassney bridge having 5' shoulders and 10' sidewalks, and the William Cannon bridge with 11' shoulders and 10' sidewalks. (no shoulders exist currently)
In addition new sidewalks/shared use paths are planned along both sides of the the freeway between Stassney and about 1/2mi south of Wm Cannon. This is a good boost to accessibility there since much of that distance is missing sidewalks now and a lot of the frontage road has narrow or no shoulders.
Stassney lacks bike lanes east of 35, and Wm Cannon lacks bike lanes west of 35, so the paths also mean folks will finally be able to connect east-west across 35 in the area without sharing a lane on these very busy roads.
Thank you too for keeping this site going. I'm always curious how these major cases end up, and there are almost never any followup news stories about them, so I go digging around. Somehow I feel a bit better if they get documented somewhere.
That's really interesting about the charge and penalty difference--good catch! Though to me it seems like they could have kept the Hit & Run charge too. They are separate crimes: assault for the dragging, and then he fled the scene. An interview with the DA on this case would be interesting to know their challenges and strategy.
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