I think Sylvan already mentioned it earlier in this thread, but the Waikoloa Village Road has had the shoulders on both sides widened since the police officer killed this cyclist. The county then wasted no time posting signs classifying this as a Bicycle Route! Some of the curves do have very limited sight distance, but compared to what this road previously offered to both cyclists and vehicles it has been greatly improved.

There has been a lot of Saddle Road reconstruction in the past 9 years. From MP 11 on the Hilo side to the intersection with Hwy 190 on west side, the Saddle Road is basically a freeway now. Lane width shoulders on both sides for most segments except where it widens to 3 lanes for climbing or intersections. MP 5-11 are currently being reconstructed. Outside of the very long climbing/descending grades and potential weather conditions this may be the best road on the island now.

Sorry to have to post this during Ironweek, but this story shouldn't be forgotten. The trial for the police officer (at the time) accused of killing Jeffrey Surnow began last week.

http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/...-of-killing-cyclist/

http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2018/10/04/hawaii-news/widow-testifies-in-buddemeyer-case/

wow crazy and sad

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

I remember when this happened, seemed like I recall he came across the road and it was a head on? Or was it from behind? A head on seems pretty cut and dry, hitting from behind on that old road not as much. Either way, sad that so many lives are destroyed and changed forever. No amount of money brings him back, but of course his death and its cause probably was the catalyst for the road being widened with a bike lane, so a tiny silver lining out of the whole disaster...

According to this story - https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/...clist-moves-forward/ - both vehicles were moving east at the time of collision. If the officer wouldn't have left the scene, told several different stories about what happened and moved the collision debris from the road to his vehicle, I'm guessing he likely would have plea bargained a light sentence a long time ago.

The district attorney's office is rather mum about the details. We know where he was hit, we know about when he was hit, we know where the car was damaged (front). But that's it.

There were 6 continuances for this trial. The taxpayers are paying his defense as well.

There's not a good track record state wide for bicycle death prosecutions.

I'll let folks know what the verdict is whenever it comes in (November probably)

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The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. -- A fake Albert Einstein "quote"

The jury on Friday found former officer Jody Buddemeyer guilty of third-degree negligent homicide, a lesser included offense after deliberating on the case for nearly six hours following closing arguments. The officer had faced first-degree negligent homicide, a class B felony that carried a prison term of up to 10 years. They also found Buddemeyer not guilty of evidence tampering and false reporting to law enforcement.

He faces up to one year incarceration and a maximum fine of $2,000 at sentencing, which has been scheduled for Nov. 30.

It looks like the trial in the civil lawsuit was recently postponed until June 2019.

Full story of verdict - http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/...ty-of-a-misdemeanor/
Story on closing arguments - http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/...-in-buddemeyer-case/
Arguments made by Buddemeyer's attorney in closing statement:
The first doubt De Lima raised was Surnow’s bicycle. He explained it wasn’t registered in Hawaii and he brought it from the mainland. “No witness has come to stand that has said this bike was legally on the street,” De Lima said.

De Lima told jurors the cyclist chose to ride a road that had no shoulder, in the dark, not designed for triathlon riding. “After the accident, the county did put in 10- to 11-foot paved shoulders,” he said.

De Lima added if a cyclist were riding near the fog line nothing would have happened. “If you were riding on the fog line nothing definitely would have happened,” he iterated. De Lima talked about the flashing red light that was affixed to Surnow’s bike. He told the jury the Michigan man had been riding for a couple hours before the accident occurred. It’s unknown how powerful the light was or how quickly it was flashing. He reminded jurors of the first witness who claimed seeing the flashing red light when he drove past Surnow that morning prior to the crash from between 100 to 150 feet away.
“There’s been no testimony on how long it takes for the light to drain out,” De Lima said.

He recalled for the jury that Buddemeyer said he didn’t see the red light. He didn’t see Surnow. “He was going the speed limit. He was driving with his headlights,” De Lima said.

ughh, that's horrible. I feel for the family.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

I hope the family gets closure. It's sad for sure...

WTF?

Yes, it certainly appears to show the ignorance of a jury of our peers regarding cycling and cycling laws if they accepted what the attorney for the motorist said. I also have questions regarding how hard the prosecutor worked the case and what she knew about cycling and cycling laws if she didn't present evidence that would have kept the defense counsel from making those statements in the closing argument.

I also would have thought the tampering with evidence charge was a slam dunk

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Good luck if the jury is all local brahs

Buddemeyer on Friday was sentenced to one year probation. Special conditions include that he will be committed to the Department of Public Safety where he will be monitored for 60 days with electronic monitoring.


https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2018/12/01/hawaii-news/buddemeyer-found-guilty-of-misdemeanor-in-fatal-crash/


A civil trial filed by the family against Buddemeyer continues.

The loss of an innocent life is awful. How motorists continue to get away with this is mind boggling. Particularly since he tried to cover it up initially. The defendant sure was remorseful and apologetic when his butt was on the line. What the hell. I read the links as the case progressed and just shake my head.

It's the paradox of the "common man's crime". Enough people do it in varied enough backgrounds (judges, cops, lawyers, doctors, teachers, moms) that nobody wants to act because they're afraid they'd be condemning themselves to something they couldn't handle.

Why else to you think penalties for peddling pot or writing bad checks or stealing a TV will eventually cause people to get actual time........but killing a person won't.

What's easier to see on the news? We put away some dark skinned baddies peddling drugs and robbing folks, or we put away the local cul de sac dweller mom of 3 for killing a person while driving?

Sad, but not too surprising. :-(

What's easier to see on the news? We put away some dark skinned baddies peddling drugs and robbing folks, or we put away the local cul de sac dweller mom of 3 for killing a person while driving?


Sad but true.

There is also this fact - when you step back and look at all of these cyclist/motorist incidents, there is a pattern - and that pattern is in almost invariably seems to be stacked AGAINST the cyclist and FOR the motorist. How else to explain how one simple line, "I did not see them", get a motorist completely off, or with some minimalist charge, even when a cyclist has died.

Does no one ask the judge or jury, that seeing where you are going and what's in front of you is a critical skill and responsibility for driving a motor vehicle?

BTW - as confirmed early in this thread, the shoulder on the Waikoloa Road is paved (6m wide roughly) from the QueenK all the way to the Upper Levels Hwy. It's an amazing place to ride. I rode it several times when I was just in Kona, in and around, Race Week this year - I saw ZERO other riders up there!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Yeah...not only is it a crime that anyone can commit, but the victim is often hard for the judge and jury to relate with. Cyclists are such a small portion of our population in the US. And the attitude that "they shouldn't be on the road" still very much exists whether someone wants to openly admit it or not. The closing arguments of the defendant proves that notion. I know some of my coworkers friends feel that way about me, but won't openly say it to my face because we're friends. I've often caught people I've just met making those type of remarks to me before knowing I'm a cyclist. We recently had a cyclist struck and critically injured by a street racer, and many of my non cycling friends were asking me if where she was hit was a safe place to ride.

The majority of the public still thinks that cyclists bear some of the blame in these "accidents" because we are somehow asking for it by being out on the road where we shouldn't be. It's rather sad.

I think it is also hard for the majority of law enforcement personnel investigating these collisions to relate to cyclists and not to have some bias, since most of them spent the majority of their working day in a motor vehicle. I am a bit more hopeful each time I see a law enforcement officer on a bicycle.