Posts about Crash Charges

The more information that came out, the more outrageous the charges against Nelson became. From an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story that came out the month after the incident:

On April 10, she and her three children—Tyler, 9, A.J., 4, and Lauryn, 3—went shopping because the next day was Nelson's birthday. They had pizza, went to Wal-Mart and missed a bus, putting them an hour late getting home. Nelson, a student at Kennesaw State University, said she never expected to be out after dark, especially with the children.

When the Cobb County Transit bus finally stopped directly across from Somerpoint Apartments, night had fallen. She and the children crossed two lanes and waited with other passengers on the raised median for a break in traffic. The nearest crosswalks were three-tenths of a mile in either direction, and Nelson wanted to get her children inside as soon as possible. A.J. carried a plastic bag holding a goldfish they'd purchased.

"One girl ran across the street," Nelson said. "For some odd reason, I guess he saw the girl and decided to run out behind her. I said, 'Stop, A.J.,' and he was in the middle of the street so I said keep going. That's when we all got hit."

Look at all the ways the design of the city's transportation system failed Nelson and her family. Bus service runs once an hour. There is no crosswalk to connect a bus stop with an apartment building it serves—nor any crosswalk for three blocks. A convicted hit-and-run driver who is half-blind and has alcohol and pain-killers in his system is considered less of a threat to the public than a woman who rides the bus and walks with her kids.

And as Radley Balko wrote in the Huffington Post, the odds were stacked against Nelson from the start.

"During jury questioning, none of the jurors who would eventually convict Nelson raised their hands when asked if they relied on public transportation," Balko wrote. "Just one juror admitted to ever having ridden a public bus, though in response to a subsequent question, a few said they'd taken a bus to Braves games."

Indeed, as David Goldberg wrote on T4America's campaign blog, "Nelson, 30 and African-American, was convicted on the charge this week by six jurors who were not her peers. All were middle-class whites" and did not ride public transit. "In other words, none had ever been in Nelson's shoes."

Many have asked if there's any way to help. Some expressed a desire to contribute to Nelson's legal fund. Others wanted to know if they could write a letter to someone demanding that Nelson's charges be expunged.

I've left two messages over the past week with Nelson's lawyer asking these (and other) questions. Neither message has been returned. So I can't answer your questions about a legal defense fund. Nelson's sentencing hearing is on Tuesday.

But there are now two petitions circulating. One, circulating at the Care2 petition site, asks the governor to overturn Nelson's verdict. At the moment I'm writing this, the petition has gathered 4,369 signatures, on the way to its goal of 10,000.

Another, which currently has 1,061 signatures at Change.org, asks not only for Nelson's release but for the installation of a crosswalk. That petition is addressed to the Cobb County Transportation Department, Cobb County Commissioner District 1 (Helen Goreham), and the Solicitor General (Barry Morgan).

We'll stay tuned for news on Nelson's sentence on Tuesday.

Cross-posted at Streetsblog Capitol Hill.

No other kind of human death seems to yield so little concern and action. Children choking lead to product recalls. Children caught in the crossfire of drug wars lead to increased police presence and debates over how to fight gangs. But children killed in the streets are too often simply dismissed as inevitable and disregarded.

It doesn't have to be this way. We know what behavior is dangerous. Speeding is dangerous. Making hasty turns, trying to beat a light, without looking for people on bikes or on foot is dangerous. People can still reach their destinations fairly quickly without resorting to these behaviors.

Our goal must not be to exact crippling revenge on people who honestly make mistakes, but neither can we simply throw up our hands and say, "it was an accident," and write off these fatalities as inevitable. They are entirely avoidable through better behavior by all road users, enforcement against dangerous behavior, and better road design.

I want to discuss two specific ways we can take immediate steps toward solving this problem: deploying more traffic cameras and releasing better data.

Psychologically, facing a very severe penalty for a crime, but a very low chance of being caught, doesn't change people's behavior. That's why cranking up sentence lengths hasn't stopped crime. Instead, if someone knows there's a good chance they'll get caught but may not be as severely punished if they are, they're much less likely to break that law.

This applies to traffic just as it does to street crime. A recent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study found that traffic cameras, even with small penalties, are very effective at reducing fatal traffic crashes, far more than police sitting on the rare street corner to pull over drivers.

Therefore, I hope you will fully support MPD's current effort to deploy more cameras that detect a wider range of dangerous driving behavior.

Secondly, we need better information about these incidents. Where are these crashes occurring? Why? What have the consequences been?

Greater Greater Washington, Struck in DC, TBD On Foot, and other blogs and news outlets have been trying to report on the crashes that take place every day. The purpose is to raise awareness among all road users, and to help residents and policymakers better understand the problem so we may better find fair and equitable solutions.

However, while serious crashes draw press reports of the initial incident, we have been unable to reliably get reports of more minor incidents, besides the DDOT data which comes out only yearly. For a time, a public information officer for DC Fire and EMS was reporting via Twitter most incidents where a pedestrian or cyclist was struck. However, more recently these reports have slowed dramatically, and they never encompassed all crashes.

Likewise, it is very difficult if not impossible to get copies of police reports of a crash, and to find out how the issue was ultimately disposed of.

Just as many DC agencies have created feeds of downloadable data for 311 requests, reported crimes, building permit applications, and more, I'd like to see Fire and EMS publish a feed of incidents to which they respond. Then, MPD should devise a process to release the reports from crash investigations, along with whether those investigations led to a ticket, a referral to prosecutors, or no action at all.

A number of countries have adopted "Vision Zero" initiatives which set concrete targets for reducing fatalities on the roadways. We can and should do the same. We can't eliminate every crash, but we can stop many of them, and effective enforcement is key. With better data, residents can better understand the causes and policy analysts can determine the easiest and best ways of reducing fatalities. Thank you.

The House did pass the bill letting bike and motorcycle riders go through stoplights if they've waited 2 minutes or 2 light cycles, and another clarifying that injuring someone after driving through a stop or yield sign or traffic light counts as reckless driving is still alive.

Two bad transportation bills suffered some likely-fatal wounds. HB2016, to consolidate three Northern Virginia transportation agencies and which was strongly opposed by most Northern Virginia representatives in both parties, was referred to the Joint Transportation Accountability Commission where it's expected to die. That's because one problem with consolidating these agencies is that each has taken on debt for various projects under various terms, and consolidating could create substantial legal headaches.

HB1999, perhaps the worst of all, would require that transportation spending follow the anti-livability "congestion" standard. The Transportation Committee referred it to Appropriations with no endorsement, which is tantamount to disapproving and makes it unlikely Appropriations will pass it. Its companion, HB1998, is the one that did pass in committee earlier in the week. 1998 forces VDOT to create lists of projects based on auto-centric "congestion" priorities, while 1999 forces spending to follow those lists.

The biggest fight will come over Governor McDonnell's "borrow money for roads" transportation plan. Smart growth and environmental groups came out against the plan, but powerful business groups are pushing it.