Thank you to everyone who has made a reservation to come to this years Appreciation Night! We have 175 people attending and know we will have a good time.
If anyone was unable to get tickets and would still like to come to it, please send me your name and I will start a standby list.
Warm regards,
Sandy
Sandy Lorber
408-206-9648
From the Canon City Daily Record:
(http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Top-Story.asp?ID=2460)
Publish Date: 1/6/2006
Officer guilty of careless driving
Alison Miller
Daily Record Staff Writer
Cañon City Police Officer Doug Havens was convicted Thursday night of careless driving in a June 2005 incident that killed cyclist Bill Bliss on Colo. 67, two miles north of Wetmore.
Havens was found innocent of the lesser charge of speeding.
Assistant District Attorney Cheyenne Ross built her case around Bliss’ advocacy for bicycling safety and expert accident reconstruction.
The victim’s longtime friend and fellow cyclist Russell Godfrey testified Bliss, a 69-year-old Californian, advocated and taught road safety to new cyclists. According to Godfrey, Bliss always wore a helmet and bright clothing, had triangle reflectors and followed traffic laws.
Godfrey had been on the cross country tour that began in Virginia and was to end in Oregon before Bliss was struck by Havens on June 24.
Havens, a rural Westcliffe resident, was off duty at the time.
Defense attorney Cindy Montgomery called Bliss’ safety into question during cross-examination. She said Bliss’ bike and physical condition contributed to the accident.
Testimony indicated the bike was loaded down with equipment and had perhaps been engineered to carry excess cargo. The bike was described by Godfrey as having smaller than average wheels and a rack carry-ing a tent, tools, sleeping bag and other supplies.
Godfrey also testified Bliss was blind in the left eye, which was later determined by the Fremont County Coroner Dorothy Twellman to most likely have affected Bliss’ peripheral vision and possibly affected his ability to see motorists.
The Bliss family, who came from California and Seattle to attend the trial, disputed claims he was unsafe and said Bliss was an extremely accomplished cyclist.
“Bill has been bicycling for 36 years,” said Bonnie Bliss, the victim’s widow. “He has over 300,000 bicy-cle miles. He’s a very proficient rider; he’s done most of those miles commuting in urban traffic in San Jose (Calif.).
“Of all the people in the nation, he is probably one of the people who have such a depth of understanding and depth of thinking in these types (road cycling) of situations,” Mrs. Bliss said.
The defense questioned whether Bliss actually had been following the rules of the road and claimed he was riding close to a foot from the center line instead of near the white line as required by law.
Montgomery supported the claim with testimony from rural postal carrier Amanda Withers who said she saw between 10 and 15 cyclists on the highway “far out in the road so that you had to get into the other lane to get past them.”
Montgomery outlined a series of events, arguing Havens came around a curve just south of mile marker 2 on Colo. 67 at legal speeds and his view was obstructed by a vehicle in front of him. She also said Bliss was riding where he should not have been and that Havens had no time to prevent the accident.
Jeffery Burke, an accident reconstruction specialist from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, testified Havens could not have been traveling more than 58 mph when he struck Bliss.
Burke said he personally drove Havens’ Ford truck around the curve attempting to reach 77 MPH and said the truck almost rolled. He said he was unable to reach the alleged speed Ross claimed Havens was travel-ing after coming out of the curve.
Burke also said at such high speeds it is impossible to see people when looking out the vehicle’s window, supporting the claim he was not speeding.
Rancher Chad Draper testified for the defense he was fixing a fence on his property and observed Havens driving. He said he and Havens waved to each other.
Draper also supported defense’s claims there had been another car ahead of Havens.
The prosecution’s expert witness gave a conflicting account of what he believed happened that day.
Mike Halpin, accident reconstruction specialist for the Colorado State Patrol, said he calculated Havens’ speed at 77 MPH in a 65 zone through calculations and measurements taken at the scene.
Halpin said skid marks, a scrape mark from the bicycle making impact with the road and Havens’ account of the accident gave him points of reference to reconstruct the accident.
According to Halpin, Havens probably came around the curve at high speeds, saw Bliss, had about 1.5 seconds reaction time, struck Bliss and applied the brakes.
The injuries sustained by Bliss were determined to be associated with Halpin’s account. Pictures of the deceased Bliss demonstrating such injuries were denied by Judge William Fox on grounds they were more inflammatory than probative.
Fox said the photos would evoke the sympathy that he himself admitted to having while viewing the pho-tos.
Evidence from the death certificate was admitted stating Bliss died from a substantial head injury caused by being struck by a motor vehicle.
Havens took the stand to give a personal account of the events and, upon cross-examination by Ross, a mistrial was almost granted after she asked Havens how many speeding tickets he has been issued. Havens admitted to one speeding ticket before Montgomery had the opportunity to object.
Prior acts are not allowed to be introduced into evidence, and Montgomery moved for a mistrial. Fox de-termined though Ross’ conduct was unacceptable, an instruction to the jury to not weigh the speeding ticket was more appropriate than to grant a mistrial.
The jury found that there was not enough evidence to convict Havens of speeding, but decided he was driving carelessly and caused Bliss’ death.
The misdemeanor carries a range of sentence options from fines and points on his license to jail time. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. March 6.
According to CCPD Capt. Jim Cox, Havens is working and he knows of no plans to remove him from duty. Cox said the decision to keep or terminate Havens’ employment lies with City Administrator Steve Rabe, who had no comment.
Tomorrow is my youngest son Kenneth's birthday. He will be 19.
As Kenneth's birthday has been approaching I have been thinking a lot about it. It seems like he was just a little boy. Now, in 12 months he will be 20. Days go by so fast their passing seems trivial. But, each day is unique and never to be repeated again. Kids, they grow up so fast. It seems like yesterday, but just a little over a decade ago Kenneth was a little 8-year-old.
One of our favorite things to do was to go camping at a place called "camp." This is a place where my first wife Candy went since she was a little girl. After she died, this is where we buried her ashes. I hope we can go back there this year.
Here are some pictures of Kenneth.
The February 2006 queue is here. Contributors please check to see your contributions are here.
Thanks:
~Steve
http://homepage.mac.com/s_sloan/bbb/200602/
I hope you are having a great family holiday. I am taking a posting break from this blog, to spend time with my family. I will be posting some of these holiday activities and you are invited to follow along at the Sloan family blog [Link].
It has been wonderfully warm riding weather. Today I led a bicycle club ride to Croy Park. It felt good to ride and I was riding strong. It was a 43 mile ride. It was great, 16 people came. We had warm weather, with the fall change, the red leaves and we even saw a coyote. Only one rider had a flat. Lotsa folks stopped to help Sarah fix it. Tomorrow Susie, Kenneth and I are planning to go to a cat show.
The final version of the December newsletter is posted [ download here, 1 MB PDF ]. This is it. It is done! It is to be sent to the printer. No more edits will be allowed. The newsletter is done finished and has gone to press!
~Steve
Technorati Tags: ssloansjca, actc
The second "alpha version [ definition here ]" of the December newsletter is posted here. [PDF File Link] It still has about four pages missing content, a little old content (like the table of contents) from the last issue is still there, etc. These early versions are posted here for editing of what is here and so you know what the look and feel of the newsletter will be. More will be posted as it becomes available. As always I reserve the right to make substantial changes to the layout and design before final release.
~Steve
Technorati Tags: ssloansjca, actc
The first "alpha version [ definition here ]" of the December newsletter is posted here. [PDF File Link] It has a lot of missing content, some old content from the last issue is still there, etc. The early version is posted here for editing of what is here and so you know what the look and feel of the newsletter will be. More will be posted as it becomes available. As always I reserve the right to make substantial changes to the layout and design before final release.
~Steve
Technorati Tags: ssloansjca, actc
It is unusual for me to have two month where I have business trips back to back during production periods. The December queue is here. Contributors please check to see your contributions are here. Mug shots are also here for officers. I will be going into production this weekend!
Thanks:
~Steve
http://homepage.mac.com/s_sloan/bbb/200512/
The final version of the November newsletter is posted [ download here, 936 KB PDF ]. This is it. It is done! It is sent to the printer. No more edits will be allowed. The newsletter is done finished and has gone to press!
~Steve
Today was the last weekday whine and dine ride of 2005. It was a fun ride and we concluded it with a ride up Cat's Hill in Los Gatos. There I asked them to pose for a picture and a local house cat came up to check out the action.
Ever since Joanne and her husband Lee Thrall joined the club, I have heard comments about how she looks like my wife. The Saturday party was the first time I saw them together. Like me, Joanne and Lee also ride Rivendells!
The final version of the October newsletter is posted [ download here, 1 MB PDF ]. This is it. It is done! It is sent to the printer. No more edits will be allowed. The newsletter is done finished and has gone to press!
~Steve
The second "alpha version [ definition here ]" of the October newsletter is posted here. [PDF File Link] It has less missing content and the calendar is up to date but the table of contents is not. These early versions are posted here for editing of what is here and so you know what the look and feel of the newsletter will be. More will be posted as it becomes available. As always I reserve the right to make substantial changes to the layout and design before final release.
~Steve
The first "alpha version [ definition here ]" of the October newsletter is posted here. [PDF File Link] It has a lot of missing content, some old content from the last issue is still there, etc. The early version is posted here for editing of what is here and so you know what the look and feel of the newsletter will be. More will be posted as it becomes available. As always I reserve the right to make substantial changes to the layout and design before final release.
~Steve
October BBB Queue Is Closed:
It can be found at this link [link]. The newsletter is now in production.
It appears STBikes, a San Jose, California bike shop, wants my vote bad enough that they may be willing to bribe me for it.
This came in my E-mail today (September 6, 2005.)
If I am reading this right, if you vote for them in Metro Magazine's [Link] "Best of Silicon Valley Contest" you will receive a discount. Plus, if I am reading this right, the more times you vote for them, the more times you will get the discount. If they win this "contest" they get "free" publicity in Metro magazine.
Am I reading this right? Is this is really as this appears to me? If so, how can this possibly be ethical?
Technorati Tags: SanJose, San Jose, bicycling, corruption, journalism, ethics
