no illegal substances. no criminal charges.

http://news.tbo.com/news/MGA76IWP7ID.html

http://www.sptimes.com/...won_t_face_cri.shtml

he has plead innocent to careless driving and will be back in court sept 26.

http://www.naplesnews.com/...florida/d955080a.htm

---

Marty Gaal, CSCS
One Step Beyond Coaching
Triangle Open Water Swim Series | Old School Aquathon Series
Powerstroke® Freestyle Technique DVD

They had the arraignment hearing on August 5th (see story at http://www.sptimes.com/..._hit_bicyclist.shtml )for Joseph Pastore (The guy who mowed over all the cyclists) at the South County
Traffic Court in Pinellas County, FL. He (actually his attorney) plead not guilty in front of the judge. Pastore himself was not there, just his lawyer
was. (Minimal insurance, no assets, but he has the money to hire a private attorney? )

The judge ordered a medical assessment to be done by a group called "Getting
in Gear" which is apparently a group that performs medical assessments on
elderly drivers whose driving abilities are in question. This group will do
a report and submit it to the judge for a pre-trial hearing which will be
held on SEPTEMBER 26th(Friday) at the same traffic court, at 1:00 p.m. on 66th
Street and 18th Avenue North in St. Petersburg. At this pre-trial on September 26th, the
judge has said that he Will Allow victims and any of their families/friends to
speak.

The judge also said that he will accept letters from ANYONE (cyclist, family
member, friends, etc.) relating to this case and their feelings on the case.
So the more letters he gets the better. If anyone wants you can address your letters to:

The Honorable Judge Overton
South County Traffic Court
1800 66th Street North
St. Petersburg, Florida 33710

Make sure to reference the case number somewhere in the heading of your
letter. The case # is:
03-005932-CAW

I'm sure that by doing this Pastore thinks everyone will forget about it by then and he can go on his merry way driving on the streets and perhaps next time kill someone.

The guy's still showed no remorse or taken any responsibility.

It's really important that as many people voice their concern (in an intelligent & cordial manner) and let it be known that Mr. Pastore should have his license revoked and not ever be permitted drive again. He's already gave plenty of people dibilitating injuries (both physical & mental) that they will have to live with the rest of their lives. Next time it could be somebody life. It's really important that action be taken against Mr. Pastore or there will be others that will think they can run over/hit cyclists & suffer no consequences.

More specifics of the accident for those not familiar is at www.stpetemaddogs.com

It's easy to see the prevailing attitude towards cyclists when they have to mention that they ran a red light 4 blocks earlier. How is that relevant all? Pastore's comment about cyclists taking up the road makes ME think he's an ass, but his views might resonate with too many people. Irresponsible, activist journalism if you ask me.

Thanks all for the links. I certainly hope that, at the very least, Mr. Pastore gets a thorough review of all the meds he is on, and his vision and reaction time, before he gets back on the road. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ACCIDENT! If you review every "accident," you will always find a causative factor that could have been eliminated to prevent the "accident." In this case, it appears Mr. Pastore's medical condition did not warrant him being on the road--nothing to do with running a red light four blocks earlier. I don't understand why this should be different from DUI. In Pensacola there was a case of an epileptic who suffered a seizure, blew through a red light, and killed two old ladies in another car. He got the book thrown at him. Mr. Pastore seems to be getting off very light in comparison.

of 20 had his first Grand Mal episode. It could have been behind the wheel of a car, no hint prior.

There really were no indications that it would happen.

What if he had killed someone?

As a result he does not drive, but it could have happened anywhere, I know he did not want it to happen. Should he have the book thrown at him if it had occured behind the wheel and he'd killed someone?

It would have been an accident, there were no indications that would have led to a diagnosis that might have prevented it so had it happened and he been behind the wheel for his first seizure, someone including himself could have died and I know he'd not have driven if he ever thought that might be a result.

There are occasionally accidents which depsite all good intentions can simply not be prevented.

May be different circumstances here. I believe the driver I mentioned had a long history of seizures and (from what I recall) may not have even had a valid license anymore. Given what we have learned about Mr. Pastore's medical history, I doubt this was his first ever occurrence of LOC. If it wasn't, he (like your friend) should probably have been self-restricting his driving. I am also (like Pastore) a diabetic, and am very careful about getting behind the wheel w/o some emergency glucose source in case I feel low blood sugar coming on. I still believe there is no such thing as an accident. If you look hard enough, there is always some intervention at one point or another that can prevent any accident. As long as we excuse people for "accidents" we facilitate irresponsible behavior. There are a lot of people driving 2,000 lb. projectiles that really shouldn't be (like Pastore and the old gent in California that plowed through the open-air market). To solve or alleviate this problem, we can either institute a government-mandated testing program (intrusive and expensive) or we can encourage personal responsibility by forcing people to accept the consequences of their (not so) accidental behavior.

Let's see it's Friday.(so do some search engine!) Here's all the articles I could search up on this guy & the accident in addition to the other links above:

http://www.sptimes.com/...ms_into_20_cyc.shtml

http://www.sptimes.com/...in_bike_crash_.shtml

http://www.sptimes.com/...ling_a_message.shtml

http://www.sptimes.com/...won_t_face_cri.shtml

http://www.sptimes.com/..._hit_bicyclist.shtml

http://www.wtsp.com/...p;sid=3486&bw=lo
http://www.wtsp.com/...p;sid=3603&bw=lo



Just seems like this guy should never be permitted to ever drive again. Reading everything about him, he seems to not even care. Hopefully they can make an example of him. (& get him off the road before he kills someone next time!). I feel bad if he truly has an illness, but if he is endangering other people's lives (& obviously isn't very responsible) he shouldn't have the "Privilege" of having a drivers license.

that he would suffer a grand mal.

The first he and we knew about it was a huge F**king bang from the Bathroom that several of us shared in a dorm on a field trip. He came out, we asked what happened, he had no idea, 2 days later it occured again on a beach where several lecturers were with him.

No family history, no clues he might suffer from this. I suppose a mandatory CT scan or some other medical evaluation might have detected this but until that becomes a compulsory part of a driving test (bearing in mind a simple medical would not have picked this up) this would / could cause an accident. Him choosing to drive until this happened was not irresponisble, he was not to know what might happen.

Clearly you can boil almost anything down to a route cause but it does not mean that you can prevent all these things from happening, you cant stop people having heart attacks caused by stress, heart disease etc behind the wheel, or for that matter fits.

a lot like WHAM he was high on life!

wake me up before you go go
i'm not planning on going solo
wake me up before you go go
take me dancing tonight
i wanna hit that high!!! yeah yeah yeah

---

customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.