[MRFReps] Latest on Tama Accident...

Good article. Had to pass it on.

-------- Begin Forward --------

Very good article. Sounds very much like something ABATE of NM needs to
look into with the direction of Safety and Education.



-----Original Message-----
From: Dan spotman Spotten [mailto:spotman@lisco.net]
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 9:02 AM

Some of you have "seen" me speak about the Tama Tragedy in person...

The following ran in today's (April 11, 2004) Des Moines Register - the
largest newspaper in Iowa. Considering it was the Register - it's damn
good article. Of course the "graphs and results of safety studies" are
not included in the online version of this story as they are in the
front page story...

But this article finally puts a human face and human emotions on the
horrible trend that we see happening way too often...cars and trucks
running bikers down. The writer did a really good job of telling both
sides of the story and being this is Easter...everyone will read the
paper. With any luck, someone will be reading this and in the future
REMEMBER to look out for a motorcyclist and maybe a life or two will be
saved. We can always hope...

Steve Rector and Wayne Wierson did a great job conveying our desire to
save lives through education and tying it all together with the positive
importance of ABATE of Iowa's Share the Road Program. Thanks guys!!!

Now, let's see a "Share the Road Program" in every state, in every
school/civic organization and in the forefront of everyone's mind.

-spotman






"$11.60 a piece. That's what our lives are worth."

Tama County crash, trial leave bikers sad, seething.
By KEN FUSON
Register Staff Writer
04/11/2004

Clive, Ia. - A man pops a plastic bag.

Bang!

"You've just been killed," Wayne Wierson tells one of the six driver's
education students brought to the front of the room. They are pretending
to be motorcycle riders.

"You've just been killed," he tells another.

"You've just been killed," he tells a third.

This is a classroom, but it's much more than that for Wierson. Every
day, the 57-year-old Ames man returns in his mind to that clear, sunny
June day two years ago, when he embarked on a motorcycle trip with five
friends and returned home alone.

In little more than the time it takes to pop a plastic bag, three of his
friends were killed and two others critically injured when a van crossed
the center line on U.S. Highway 30, about six miles northwest of Belle
Plaine.

In January, a Tama County jury acquitted the van's driver, Gary Lee
Butler, 49, of three counts of vehicular homicide. A judge then fined
the Des Moines man a total of $70 for two other violations, crossing the
center line and failure to maintain control of his vehicle.

"For the six of us it comes out to about $11.60 apiece," Wierson said.
"That's what our lives were worth."

Butler's attorney, Keith Rigg of Des Moines, said he understood the
frustration of Wierson and other motorcyclists, but he said the jury
ruled correctly.

"The facts are that it was just a tragic, tragic accident," he said.

Tama County Attorney Brent Heeren has appealed the judge's ruling,
saying Butler could have been sentenced to 60 days in jail and fined
$1,000. The Iowa Supreme Court last month agreed to review the decision.
That will not change the jury's verdict.

In the meantime, the case has outraged motorcycle enthusiasts across the
country, who say it's another example of a motorist being treated
leniently after causing the death of a motorcyclist.

"We need to do something to make motorcyclists start to matter," Wierson
said. "Because people ride a motorcycle, the perception is that you
deserve what you get."

Groups that have been known primarily in the past for advocating against
mandatory helmet laws now wonder if they need legislative help to
protect them from other drivers.

People get the same penalty for running over a motorcyclist as they do
for running a stop sign, said Steve Rector of Marshalltown, state
coordinator of ABATE (A Brotherhood Aimed Toward Education) of Iowa,
which has as many as 8,000 members.

"That is wrong," he said.

The Iowa verdict came in the same month that former U.S. Rep. Bill
Janklow of South Dakota received a 100-day jail sentence after speeding
through a stop sign and hitting a motorcyclist, killing the biker.
Janklow had a history of speeding and could have received an 11-year
prison term.

Citing the Iowa and South Dakota cases, among several others, the
250,000-member American Motorcyclist Association recently announced its
"Justice for All" initiative. The group will seek stiffer penalties for
traffic offenses or criminal acts that kill or injure other motorists,
including motorcycle riders. The proposal did not come up in the Iowa
Legislature this year.

Some motorcyclists have called for riders to express their anger by
boycotting the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota's Black
Hills, but the association has not endorsed the move.

"We certainly understand the frustration" among riders, "but what we're
advocating is not symbolic," said Tom Lindsay, the group's spokesman.
"It's actually positive, constructive action that will benefit
motorcyclists in the future."

Review of incident reflects frustration

As spring turns to summer, and more of the nation's 6 million
motorcyclists take to the road, safety has become increasingly urgent.

The number of motorcyclist deaths and injuries has increased steadily in
Iowa and across the nation the past five years, mirroring the renewed
popularity of motorcycle riding and ownership.

In 2002, the latest year for which national statistics are available,
3,244 motorcyclists were killed, including 41 in Iowa. By comparison,
Iowa recorded 16 motorcyclist deaths in 1996, a record low.

Those stark 2002 statistics include some of Wayne Wierson's best friends.

Like Doug Sampson, 51, one of the motorcyclists killed in the Tama
County accident. Sampson lived across the street from Wierson in Ames.

They drank coffee every Saturday morning. They and their wives played
cards every Saturday night.

"Even our dogs got along," Wierson said.

Or Arlen Pickering, 53, of Story City, another victim. Wierson described
Pickering, who worked at 3M Co. in Ames with Sampson, as the
quintessential biker - beefy, with a big smile and a bushy white beard.
He'd ride 200 miles for Dairy Queen ice cream.

"He said if you couldn't do it on a Harley, it wasn't worth doing,"
Wierson said.

Among his friends, Wierson was the only one who didn't own a
Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He rode a Suzuki. The others teased him
relentlessly about it.

A review of what happened on that June morning two years ago illustrates
why motorcyclists are so frustrated with the legal system and why it may
be difficult to write legislation that resolves their concerns.

That morning, Wierson, Sampson and Pickering joined three other riders
on a trip to Anamosa. Jim Olson, 64, of Ames was heading there to pick
up a new helmet.

But any reason was good enough for these friends to get on their bikes.
They belonged to a Thursday night club that rode to small-town
restaurants. Wierson says the prospect of a good tenderloin sandwich
inspired other spontaneous trips, some hundreds of miles long.

"If you loved riding, that was your ticket in," said Wierson, a
laboratory analyst at the Ames Water Treatment Plant.

On June 22, 2002, they had gone 60 to 70 miles, heading east on U.S.
Highway 30, in staggered formation on a perfect riding day. Three riders
- Pickering, Sampson and Ross Holand, 57, of Boone - rode in a line on
the left, closest to the center of the highway.

The other three - Wierson, Rick Vauble, 52, of Ames, and Olson - rode
closest to the right-hand side of the highway.

"I'm riding along, and everything is fine," Wierson said. "I remember
Arlen's bike, directly in front of me, just exploding. At first I
thought he'd blown a tire."

Wierson pulled over and looked in his rear-view mirror. There had been
four motorcycles behind him.

"There's nobody back there," he said. "I turned around, and for a city
block there was nothing but debris. It looked like a bomb had gone off."

Tragic losses, devastating injuries

A van had crossed over and struck the three riders closest to the center
line. Pickering, Sampson and Holland were killed instantly. All three
had been married at least 28 years. All three were fathers.

The van's rear bumper tore off part of Vauble's right leg, and much of
the leg was amputated. Vauble said he's doing "really bad" and "just
can't walk very well" with a prosthetic leg.

Olson skidded on the debris at least 400 feet and suffered head
injuries. He was hospitalized four months. He said he is deaf in one ear
and still has problems with his equilibrium.

"I don't remember anything from the day before the accident until three
months later," he said.

Of the six riders, only Wierson was wearing a helmet. Olson usually did,
and he said his injuries might have been less severe had he been wearing
one then.

For the others, a helmet wouldn't have made a difference, and Wierson
said the issue often is used against motorcyclists.

Faster than 20 to 25 mph, he said, "the only difference a helmet might
make is the difference between an open and closed casket at the funeral."

Why not, he asked, focus more on what motorists should do to avoid
accidents with motorcy- clists?

Rector, the ABATE coordinator, agreed: "They should be educating drivers
on making left-hand turns."

Scott Falb, a driver's safety specialist for the Iowa Department of
Transportation, said state officials, concerned about the increasing
fatalities, are putting together a new safety brochure for motorists and
motorcyclists.

Reckless, or just very regrettable?

Butler, the van driver, was employed by Brown's Crew Car of Cheyenne,
Wyo., also known as Armadillo Express. He shuttled railroad crews to and
from job assignments. He was heading from Lowden to his home in Des
Moines when the accident occurred.

Butler, who did not testify during the trial, told an Iowa State Patrol
investigator he had been awake about 25 hours when the accident
occurred, although he had not been driving the entire time.

He said fumes from the van's faulty air conditioner had apparently
caused him to black out.

"That didn't fly," said Dennis Gienger, 53, a farmer from Gladbrook who
served on the Tama County jury.

Although Rigg, Butler's attorney, said he argued that there was no
evidence Butler had fallen asleep at the wheel, Gienger said jurors
believed he had. A patrol investigator testified during the trial that
he believed Butler had fallen asleep.

For the jury, Gienger said, the key question was whether falling asleep
constituted reckless driving, which is required in cases of vehicular
homicide.

In this case, the jury was instructed that a person is reckless when he
"willfully disregards the safety of persons and property." It is conduct
"which is consciously done with willful disregard of the consequences,
and a person knows or should know a risk of harm to another or to
property is created."

Gienger said he argued for more than a day that Butler's falling asleep
fit the definition of reckless, but he said he could not get the other
jurors to agree with him.

"Their feeling was that he had suffered enough and that it was just an
accident," he said. "They said you couldn't prove beyond a doubt that it
was reckless. That was the point that we argued for the longest time."

Gienger said he eventually voted for acquittal, but he said the case
still troubles him.

"It's just a bad situation," he said. As for the anger the verdict has
generated, "I understand it 100 percent."

Heeren, the county attorney, also had charged Butler with felony
involuntary manslaughter and aggravated involuntary manslaughter, but he
said he eventually dropped those lesser charges because they, too, would
have required a finding of recklessness.

Rigg said Butler's van crossed the center line 18 inches. Pickering's
motorcycle, the first one struck, lodged under one of the van's wheels,
pushing the vehicle into the path of the other riders, he said.

"It's an accident. That's the whole thing. There's nothing to say he was
reckless," Rigg said. "He got 18 inches over the center line and this
whole, huge tragedy happened because of that. That could happen to anybody."

Butler could not be reached for comment; Rigg said he would recommend
his client not comment publicly. Charges against Butler's employer
remain pending. Several lawsuits against Butler were settled in December.

"I'm sorry for what happened," Butler told the patrol investigator,
adding, "I don't sleep that good at night," and, "I found myself in the
church chapel many times" after the accident.

That may prove small consolation to the families of those killed and
injured.

"I was disappointed greatly" in the verdict and fine, said Jo Anne
Holland, whose husband was killed, "but not too surprised, because our
court system sucks, and you can use that vernacular."

While agreeing that Butler was "pushing himself too far," Jim Olson
said, "I don't know that jail would have done him any good. He didn't do
it on purpose, is what it boils down to."

Left with memories - and a mission

Wayne Wierson emerged from the accident with a scratch on one finger.

"I have to believe I was not lucky. I was just left behind, to help keep
these guys' memory alive."

Since the accident, Wierson has joined ABATE of Iowa and has spoken to
more than 600 high school students about motorcycle safety in a program
called "Share the Road."

"I can't do anything about the lawyers or the courts, but what I can do
is hopefully make those drivers see us and hopefully make motorcyclists
safer," Wierson said.

He usually appears with Rich Archer, an Ames man who was supposed to
ride with the others on the day of the accident.

At each talk, Wierson invites six driver's education students to the
front of the room, as he did recently in Clive, and places them in the
same staggered formation that he and his motorcycling friends were
riding in.

Then Archer pops the bag.

"I don't want anybody to go through what I went through that day in
June," Wierson told the students.

Wierson still rides a motorcycle, but he sold his Suzuki and bought a
Harley-Davidson, in honor of his neighbor and the other friends.

"It gets lonely on Saturdays, I've got to tell you," he said. "Really
lonely."




Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MRFReps/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
MRFReps-unsubscribe.TakeThisOut@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/


--
Stan McCann
Tularosa Basin chapter ABATE of NM Cooordinator, Alamogordo, NM
'94 1500 Vulcan (now wrecked)
http://surecann.com/Dcp_2068c.jpg