Charges dismissed in second wheelchair case
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Two recent incidents prove police can and will cite wheelchair pedestrians who’ve been struck by vehicles in crosswalks. Those same incidents, however, reveal it’s hard to make the tickets stick.
This morning in Charlottesville District Court, Judge William Barkley dismissed the charges against Deborah Hamlin, the visually impaired and physically handicapped wheelchair pedestrian who was struck by a dump truck at the intersection of JPA and Lee Street and then ticketed for failing to obey a pedestrian signal.
“I think it’s a civil matter,” Barkley announced after listening to Hamlin’s testimony in which she described her visual disability and the specialized training she received directing her to ignore pedestrian signals and instead focus on the noise made by traffic.
“I thought he had stopped for me,” Hamlin said of the dump truck that partly ran her over as she crossed the southern side of the intersection at JPA and Lee Street heading west. Hamlin said she was coming down JPA from an appointment at UVA hospital. She successfully crossed Lee Street, and then prepared to cross JPA. The sidewalk along that stretch, she testified, “severely dips,” forcing her to be “desperately focused on controlling my chair.” Hamlin said she didn’t know there was a pedestrian signal there, and couldn’t have reached the button to trigger the signal even if she had seen it.
Although police took statements from witnesses at the scene (who had screamed for the dump truck to stop after Hamlin had been knocked from her chair and was partially under the truck’s grill), no witnesses were present in court this morning to testify. That, said Barkley, meant any of their statements would be considered “hearsay.” While the Commonwealth failed to make a case against Hamlin, Barkley added, “the officers have done fine.”
Hamlin was taken one block to the UVA emergency room where she was treated– and then ticketed. She says her shoulder was injured in the accident and will require surgery for her to regain full mobility. Hamlin says her doctor has recommended she “leave it” and cope with the additional limitation the injury imposes, but she says she’d “like to try to get surgery to get it fixed” since she is now unable to maneuver her chair in certain more strenuous circumstances.
Hamlin’s case echoes the case of Gerry Mitchell, who was struck by an Albemarle County Police cruiser on November 5 and then ticketed. His charges were dropped on January 6, and Mitchell has not announced whether he’ll pursue a civil case against Albemarle County Police or Charlottesville Police who ticketed him hours after he was struck.
Like Hamlin’s, a shoulder injury stemming from his accident has worsened Mitchell’s already precarious health. He has suffered from HIV/AIDS since 1981, and medication he takes to control the illness have rendered his bones so brittle he can no longer walk. He has been hospitalized three times since the November accident and is currently at Health South on Fontaine Avenue where he’ll receive intensive occupational and physical therapy for the next three weeks.
Mitchell’s friends have organized a fundraiser which will be held on February 9 at the 214 Community Arts Center and will feature a variety of local music acts. Money raised, says Mitchell’s brother Corky Mitchell, will go toward any of Mitchell’s future medical expenses not covered by Medicaid or toward future legal fees.
In the wake of Mitchell’s and Hamlin’s accidents, Charlottesville City Council has sidestepped any criticism of its police department and instead focused on ways to improve infrastructure for pedestrian safety. The issue will be discussed at tonight’s city council meeting.
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Interesting.
Why was the Albemarle General District Court judge hearing the case?
Did Charlottesville General District Court Judge Bob Downer recuse himself in this particular case for some reason?
“…the specialized training she received directing her to ignore pedestrian signals and instead focus on the noise made by traffic.” Who told Mrs. Hamlin to do that? If pedestrian signals are to be ignored, why do we waste money installing them? Her account in court differs from the previous version printed in the Hook, “As she waited, she says, two trucks stopped at the red light on Lee facing JPA. The truck in the middle, she says, saw her and motioned for her to cross in front of it. As she started into the crosswalk, however, the light turned green, and the truck that had been closest to her started forward with Hamlin right in front of the grill.” And was she also knocked out of the wheel chair by the truck? In the previously reported version it says “Somehow she succeeded in pushing out of her wheelchair…”
“Who told Mrs. Hamlin to do that?”
Because she’s partially blind and has other challenges and may have trouble enough with the chair, I’d guess. That said, I hope she gets a tall orange bicycle flag put on her chair.
Off-topic, electric cars if they are too quiet are going to be a little dangerous for all of us. Quiet light rail usually kills people the first year of service, also. Small complaint when gas goes to $20, soon enough.
No responsible agency working with anybody with visual problems would tell a person to just cross the street and hope that somebody’s paying attention.
The mobility instructors from The Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired do not “tell a person to just cross the street and hope that somebody’s paying attention.” They instruct their students to stop at an intersection and listen to the traffic in order to determine when it is safe to cross. Students are instructed to cross the street when traffic parallel to their direction of travel begins to move. The student must sometimes wait through several cycles and listen before the traffic pattern becomes clear. Activating the walk signal may disrupt this cycle and make it more difficult for a pedestrian who cannot see the walk signal to figure out the pattern.
The intersection where Debbie Hamlin was struck, JPA and Lee, is difficult for disabled and able bodied and the sighted and vision impaired to use. I work nearby and I hear complaints all the time from people who do walk through that intersection.
There are a few things that could be done that would make that intersection much safer. The stop bars are too close to the crosswalks. The city standard is six feet but the stop bar at the crosswalk where Ms. Hamlin was hit is only 2′ from the crosswalk at one end and less than 4′ from the crosswalk at the other end. If it had been six feet back it is unlikely that Ms. Hamlin would have been hidden from the truck drivers view. Audible signals also may have helped Ms. Hamlin and enabled her to cross the street safely.
This accident, in some ways, is unique.
My hope is that the intersection can be re-configured and made safer. It’s between the hospital and clinics and is used by many people with special needs.
I would never take the advice of that Virginia Department. It sounds to me that they are saying exactly what I thought they were saying. With right-turn-on-red how are you supposed to determine if the traffic is parallel or perpendicular when the idea is for the traffic to continue to move?
Judge Barkley and Judge Downer switch courts all the time. I’m suprised everyone here didn’t know that. Then again the people here always run off on topics that they know very little about.
You’re right Armchair Quarterback, people here always seem to run off on topics that they know very little about. Downer doesn’t wake up one morning and simply decide he wants to hear county cases rather than hear city cases. Downer and Barkley do not switch courts all the time. They switch when need be. For example, if Downer’s investment broker has a motor vehicle accident and charges are placed by city police, Judge Downer would obviously recuse himself from hearing the case in his courtroom. The Code of Judicial Conduct (Canons) establishes standards for ethical conduct of judges. And these standards do not include, “switch courts any ole time you feel like it boys!”
Its right turn on red AFTER STOP. Drivers making right turns on a red light are required by the law to stop and to yield to all pedestrians. Too many people seem to think its Right Turn on Red After Slowing Down Slightly.
I hope that drivers are paying attention every day when I cross the street. I watch them, but I also know that they can see me and that they have a brake. Drivers who cause accidents because they don’t pay attention should be charged.
And blind people should rely upon what should happen and, of course, drivers know whether wheel chair bound people can see or not. I agree with you “Too many people seem to think its Right Turn on Red After Slowing Down Slightly.”
You know what gets me in this? When I took my driver’s test in Va, it stated very clearly in the handbook that you had to YIELD to pedestrians, highlighting crosswalks.ALWAYS. Not just when the signal says so. But in practice, it seems to be that motorists think they have the right away at all times. I can’t tell you how many times I see cars stopped right across the crosswalk.
So as far as I am concerned to ticket ANY PERSON in a crosswalk is totally bogus. I can see ticketing people for jaywalking, but NEVER in a crosswalk.
I can see how honest accidents happen, but this whole issue had me shocked. I came from from working in Europe for several months, to only find our own driving behaviour and expectations along with traffic management in Charlottesville was even more idiotic. My favourite is on Pantops, where someone with a left hand turn signal in green is somehow supposed to YIELD to the person making a right on RED. WTF? that needs to be taken to court.
Tort, if you’re speaking of the traffic light at the intersection of Rt 250 and Rt 20, the left turn lane on Rt 250 (where people make a U-turn at Wendys/Texaco) has a green light while traffic coming off Rt 20 into town also has a green.
But, yes, it needs to be fixed. Somebody at the local Virginia Transportation Department should be fired over that mess.