No criminal charges for Maul in Combs crash

Posted in NEWS to Champaign by Joel Gillespie on Friday, April 22, 2011 at 7:59 am

On Monday, March 7^th at 4:30 p.m., a tandem bicycle ridden by Champaign residents Cindy and David Combs was struck by a motor vehicle driven by Errol Maul, leaving Cindy dead and David critically injured (he remains hospitalized). If you're unfamiliar with this incident, a good place to start is Annie Weisner's article from March 23.

MAUL PLEADS GUILTY TO PETTY OFFENSES

This past Monday, in advance of his scheduled hearing, Errol Maul pled guilty to two traffic violations: failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, and passing too closely. Maul was fined $1,000 plus court costs for each violation. State's Attorney Julia Rietz decided not to press any criminal charges in the incident, deeming the burden of proof too high for recklessness to justify reckless homicide charges.

Rietz participated in a meeting facilitated by League of Illinois Bicyclists Executive Director Ed Barsotti last Friday, April 15. The meeting also included State Senator Mike Frerichs, State Representative Chapin Rose (in whose district the crash occurred, and in whose district Maul resides), and local cycling advocates Gary Cziko (president of Champaign County Bikes), Peter Davis (owner of Champaign Cycle), and Cynthia Hoyle (Safe Routes to School).

Barsotti was unsurprised by Monday's outcome based on Friday's meeting. "I didn't expect any further charges than the two petty traffic offenses," Barsotti explained. "The reasons for not pursuing the reckless homicide charge were explained clearly."

Rietz made a similar decision in a similar case in 2006, when cyclist Matt Wilhelm was killed in Urbana by a driver who was downloading a ringtone on her cell phone. Rietz has advocated in recent years for a negligent homicide law, but state legislators have not come close to passing that type of legislation.

Per a report of the meeting Friday, Rose is opposed to a negligent homicide law, and Frerichs was only able to participate by phone for the first 15 minutes of a 90-minute meeting. Smile Politely plans to publish next week a more in-depth look at possible future legislation spurred by this tragedy.

Barsotti continued, "It reinforced an opinion that our legislators must act to close the gap that exists for prosecution of such cases -- as other states are starting to do. 'Reckless' seems to carry too high of a legal and case history standard of proof, and petty traffic offense penalties are too weak, to effectively deter very irresponsible driving."

SHERIFF'S REPORT

With the decision regarding criminal charges made, the Champaign County Sheriff's Department was able to honor Smile Politely's Freedom of Information Act request for the crash report and reconstruction.

A couple of caveats: first, the margins on the crash report cut off a few letters of the text from each end -- you'll still be able to follow what's going on; second, the descriptions (and to a lesser extent, the photos) are graphic and extremely saddening. The report is below in pdf format, split into sections to keep file sizes manageable:

Part 1: Crash Report

Part 2: Reconstruction

Part 3: Supplemental Documents

Part 4: Photos

Part 5: Search Warrants, Etc.

Barsotti noted, "One big question remained, coming out of the meeting: how could Mr. Maul have possibly missed seeing the Combses for so long on that quiet, long stretch of road? What was the explanation and reason?"

While the report supplies Maul's explanation, it will still be unlikely to provide any satisfaction. The report states, "Maul stated that he was traveling south on 500E at 45-50 mph and as he passed 1838 N he looked over at some paperwork which was resting on the front passenger's seat. Maul stated that when he looked up from the paperwork, the bicycle was just in front of him and slightly to the right. Maul stated that he struck the bicycle without being able to slow down." The "light blue tandem bicycle" was pulling a trailer and "a 5 foot flexible flag pole with an orange flag was attached to the trailer."

Sheriff's department personnel had earlier stated that Maul was distracted by looking at a plat book, but the report states that Maul took out the plat book after the crash to identify his location to emergency personnel. On Page 5 of the supplementary/ continuation report, it's noted that, "The driver admitted being distracted by looking at a map prior to the collision," so that's still the source of some confusion.

The crash reconstruction confirmed that Maul did not begin braking until after making impact with the bicycle, and based on the length of skid marks from the right tire of the car observed on the roadway, calculated his speed at 56.81 mph. "With a speed at a constant and minimum 56 mph (velocity 82.09 f/sec) and a reaction time of 1.6 seconds, Errol Maul's Honda Accord was an estimated 109.5 feet away from the bicyclists when they were first observed by Maul. Maul travel (sic) an estimated 131 feet before braking occurred."

There were no witnesses to the crash, although the residents of 1838 N 500 E heard the crash and assisted with the victims until emergency personnel arrived.

Maul passed field sobriety tests and was transported from the scene to Carle Hospital to have blood and urine samples collected. These samples revealed no intoxication. His cell phone was seized and he was not found to have been using his phone at the time of the crash.

The report states, "It is believed neither bike rider were wearing bike helmets when the crash occurred," although the debris from two helmets were found on the scene.

REVOKED?

Cziko noted that per Illinois Public Act 096-1305, which went into effect on January 1, 2011, any driver convicted of committing a traffic violation in an incident that results in a fatality. The law reads in its relevant section:

(a) Except as provided in this Section, the Secretary of State shall immediately revoke the license, permit, or driving privileges of any driver upon receiving a report of the driver's conviction of any of the following offenses:

16. Any offense against any provision in the Illinois Vehicle Code, or any local ordinance, regulating the movement of traffic, when that offense was the proximate
cause of the death of any person. Any person whose driving privileges have been revoked pursuant to this paragraph may seek to have the revocation terminated or to have the length of revocation reduced, by requesting an administrative hearing with the Secretary of State prior to the projected driver's license application eligibility date.

However, the mechanism required for that revocation to occur is a bit more complicated. According to the News-Gazette report from Monday, "The Champaign County Circuit Clerk's office will have to send the necessary paperwork to Jesse White's office to get that done, [Rietz] said."

A phone call to the Circuit Clerk's office yesterday verified that they had sent the "Report of Court Disposition" to the Secretary of State, as stated on their website (Case #11TR004615 was sent on Thursday, April 20). However, there is nothing on that report that would indicate that a fatality occurred in the commission of the offenses to which Maul pled guilty.

A phone call to the Springfield office of the Secretary of State revealed that they have nothing in their system for Mr. Maul (he has a "squeaky-clean driving record"), which isn't surprising, since the paperwork wouldn't have been sent until Wednesday and isn't likely to have been filed yet. The Secretary of State will get the report from the Circuit Clerk and file it, and then it would need to be cross-referenced with the accident report from the Illinois Department of Transportation, which will be filed with the Safety and Responsibility Department of the Secretary of State. When those two files are properly reconciled, then per Public Act 096-1305, Maul's license will be revoked (the SOS had no estimate on how long that would take).

The license will be revoked indefinitely (usually for a minimum of a year, although the offender can apply for a permit immediately), and can only be reinstated by an Administrative Hearing of the Secretary of State, not through the court system. The Administrative Hearing system was described as "very tough," and "it's not easy to get your license back." However, the process by which it will get revoked sounds like it will involve several moving parts that will need to align in order for it to actually happen, so it will be interesting to see if and when it actually occurs.

LOOKING AHEAD

What will the future bring for David Combs? Per a phone conversation yesterday, Developmental Services Center CEO Dale Morrissey stated that DSC's main goal going forward was to assist David in getting through his medical treatment and rehabilitation.

The Combs family have retained the services of local attorney Deborah Frank Feinen of Nally, Bauer, Feinen and Mann. Feinen declined to speak specifically about this case until she had had a chance to discuss it with David Combs' family next week.

Annie Weisner contributed reporting to this article.