The driver fled the scene, but police arrested 68-year old Elias Madriz Gutierrez shortly later. He was booked on suspicion of hit-and-run and driving under the influence causing great bodily injury, along with second-degree murder.
According to My News LA, Gutierrez was convicted of DUI twice before, in January 2009 and April 2018. Which means he would have been required to sign a Watson advisement, stating he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving under the influence any time in the future.
As a result, he could be looking at 15-to-life for the murder charge alone, as opposed to up to six years for vehicular manslaughter.
This is at least the 42nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 10th that I’m aware of in Orange County.
Fifteen of those SoCal deaths have now been hit-and-runs.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Kristin Bellovich and her loved ones.
He fled from the scene, crashing into several other cars and objects before finally coming to rest against a wall on Knapp Street, west of De Soto Ave, where he was finally detained by witnesses.
There’s no word on why he was charged with murder, which usually requires driving under the influence, after receiving a Watson advisement following a previous DUI conviction. That informs the driver that they could be charged with murder if they kill someone while driving under the influence anytime in the future.
The only other explanation for the murder convictions is that police investigators concluded the killings were intentional, but there’s been no suggestion of that in the press.
There’s also no word on why Rodriguez wasn’t charged with hit-and-run for leaving the scene of multiple crashes.
No bias here, either. Residents of a couple Baltimore neighborhoods rallied against traffic calming and expanding bike lanes, calling Complete Streets a “complete failure” that prioritizes special interest groups over the needs of everyday people. Because people who ride bikes or want safer streets aren’t everyday people, evidently.
Multiple North Carolina bicyclists went down when they were brake-checked by a road raging driver, who had honked and yelled over having to briefly slow down when the group of bike riders took the lane as they climbed a blind hill; no word on whether the driver will face charges, even though he used his vehicle as a weapon.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Electrek suggest Commerce-based ebike and electric motorcycle maker SONDORS may be the next ebike brand to fail, as all signs point to a serious financial meltdown at headquarters — in fact, their California headquarters appears to be permanently closed, and their website is no longer taking orders.
A pair of Tacoma, Washington brothers face murder charges for killing a man they had robbed less than two hours earlier, after the victim spotted the men and chased them down an alley to recover his stolen bicycle and necklace.
American Sepp Kuss is confirmed for the Vuelta, marking his fifth-straight grand tour in support of Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard, as their Jumbo-Visma team looks to sweep all three of this year’s grand tours.
March 20, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 15 to life in HB DUI hit-and-run, MI cops accused of beating bike rider, and CA Sen. Portantino buzzed on bike by driver
Happy first day of Spring, even if it doesn’t look or feel like it here in Los Angeles today.
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An Orange County man could spend the rest of his life behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run death of a man on a bicycle.
The wreck that killed MacDonald, a homeless resident of Huntington Beach, was just the second of three crashes in an alcohol-soaked crime spree that night.
Romero started off with a bar fight outside a local nightclub, following by crashing into the bar owner’s Caddy on his way out of the parking lot. He then slammed into MacDonald, before crashing into a tree, all without stopping until the tree stopped him.
He still had a blood alcohol content of .18 — over two times the legal limit — when he was tested hours after the crash.
Romero was subject to the murder charge after signing a Watson advisement following a 2012 DUI conviction, and admitted to police that he remembered signing it when he was arrested after running off from the last crash — after trying to claim that he’d been carjacked.
All three have been charged with misdemeanor assault and battery, while one of the officers also faces a felony count of misconduct in office for the incident that began with a simple traffic stop, for not having lights on the victim’s bike.
The victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified, attempted to flee by riding off on his bike on the sidewalk after officers approached him, likely because he allegedly had a small amount of suspected fentanyl and/or heroin on him.
A traffic stop was then conducted and the bicyclist was placed in to custody after “several physical strikes, taser deployment and OC spray deployment,” according to the report…
As the head of the state police said, excessive force against anyone by a police officer is “unacceptable and inexcusable.”
Especially for not having lights on a damn bicycle.
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Clearly, state senators — and Congressional candidates — aren’t any safer out there than the rest of us.
Had a SUV cut me off on Los Feliz Blvd today. He was getting on the freeway – although the lane to my right was free he needlessly passed me on my left and came within inches of my bike. https://t.co/1v2qPogF6E
We've all been there: in a rush, only to be slowed down by traffic slower than us. But vulnerable road users are worth bring patient for. Let's slow down and share the road!
After years of talk and wishes, extending the Ballona Creek bike path eastward from the current terminus at Syd Kronenthal Park could be on verge of becoming a reality.
The war on cares may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
No bias here. A Menlo Park columnist says bike-riding councilmembers display their own bias through an unwillingness to preserve parking in a bike lane project intended to improve safety for school kids, arguing that there’s very little risk of a kid getting doored or hit by a driver backing out of a parking space.
No bias here, either. A Florida columnist and retired paramedic says no kid needs a $2,000 ebike, because he once saw a kid riding one roll through a stop sign while looking at his cellphone. And somehow uses the tragic 40-year old case of boy who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt to illustrate the dangers of ebikes.
A bike rider on the Isle of Man was stopped by police three times and ordered to put his bike in their van after drivers complained about being unable to see him in foggy conditions. Which means they should slow down and drive more carefully due to the conditions — not have someone on a bike kicked off the road.
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Local
A suspect could face charges for shooting a man who was riding his bicycle on the Expo Line bike path near the Sepulveda E Line Metro station, nee Expo Line. Police detained the bike-riding suspect after he was spotted by fire fighters responding to the scene; no word on what may have led up to the incident.
State
Calbike calls for passing AB 825 in the state legislature, which would legalize sidewalk riding anywhere in the state on streets and highways that don’t include a Class I, Class II, or Class IV bikeway.
Oregon’s ebike rebate bill received an extreme makeover in the state legislature, making the rebate program an extension of Oregon’s existing Clean Vehicle Rebate Program while modeling it after Denver’s highly successful program; general residents will now receive just a $400 rebate, while low-income residents will be eligible for up to $1,200 on the purchase of a new ebike.
You might want to rethink plans to ride your bike for the next few days.
The forecast for LA County is calling for dangerously heavy rains and high winds, with flooding in low-lying areas and blizzard warnings for higher elevations.
So even with the best rain gear, the smart money is on staying home if possible, or finding some other way to get around.
Pinomi was convicted on two previous DUI charges, and had signed a Watson advisement acknowledging that he could be charged with murder if he ever drove drunk again and killed someone.
Which he allegedly did.
Just one more example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.
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This past weekend, my wife and I visited Culver City for the first time since those heady pre-pandemic days, and were struck by how pleasant the city’s Mobility Lane Project made walking in the downtown area.
And how restricting car traffic made other modes more inviting than driving, which is kind of the point.
Her battlefield experience began when she was just 14, recruited by the resistance commander she later married as he hid out on her father’s farm.
The teenager helped him exchange messages with other resistance members on a bicycle she had stolen from a German patrol outside a hotel in Chartres after slashing the tires of their other bikes.
She repainted her bike and, in the guise of a sweet-faced farmer’s daughter carrying baguettes in a basket, moved around the German-occupied countryside without suspicion. Her bike, she said, was her “reconnaissance vehicle.”
She later learned to use handguns, rifles and submachine guns, as well as becoming an expert in explosives and guerrilla tactics. Yet was still just 18 when she captured 25 German soldiers as Allied troops rolled into Chartres, then fought with them to liberate Paris.
She was 97-years old when she died Tuesday.
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BikeLA, the former LACBC, is teaming with CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman to host a feeder ride to Sunday’s CicLAvia, beginning 9 am at the Balboa Orange Line Station, RSVP requested.
Sycamore Canyon riders are being told you can’t get there from here, at least for the next week.
Heads up to bikers who ride Sycamore Canyon! The main road won’t continue to the beach during this Campground closure- there’s no (legal) way for bikes to get to/from PCH and into the canyon. Reopens March 1st! pic.twitter.com/lDWTEMrIB1
The self-proclaimed Lock Picking Lawyer demonstrates why saving a few bucks on a cheap lock isn’t worth it.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Once again, someone has sabotaged a British bike trail, as a 41-year old bicyclist suffered a concussion, broken collarbone and three broken ribs after hitting a wire strung across the trail, in what witnesses said was an apparent attempt to steal his bike.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An “avid” Bakersfield bicyclist for the past four decades calls out the poor quality of the city’s bike lanes, saying biking the streets of Bakersfield just isn’t safe anymore. There’s a Buck Owens joke in there somewhere, but it’s escaping me at the moment.
It turns out that one of the two people killed riding bikes in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown was a 76-year old retired FBI special agent and Vietnam vet, who was riding the bike his wife gave him for Christmas.
A Minneapolis news site deflates internet conspiracy theories over why protected bike lanes get plowed faster than traffic lanes when it snows; the answer is simply that there are no parked cars blocking bike lanes. Or at least, there shouldn’t be.
New York Streetsblogproposes a lithium battery trade-in program to reduce the number of dangerous old ebike and e-scooter batteries at risk of fires, with newer, safer models.
The Washington Post seems shocked that older Americans are participating in extreme sports like Ironman triathlons and the Iditarod Trail Invitational, tackling the Alaskan backcountry in subzero temperatures by bicycle, foot or skis. My own brother was in his 60s when he ran his sled dog team in the Iditarod four times, and his 70s when he tackled his first major cross-country bike tour.
Life is cheap in the UK, where a truck driver walked without a single day behind bars for a “perilous maneuver” that resulted in the death of a bike-riding man; a judge imposed community service and a lousy 15 month license suspension.
The self-governing island of Jersey is introducing what they call the world’s first smart cycling scheme, which will use smart bike lights to collect data from individual bike rides, including routes and destinations, as well as road conditions, busy spots and conflicts.
