American Motorcyclist April 2018
Ups & Downs
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Down
To the Mesa County, Colo., jury that acquitted a driver who was charged with vehicular assault after colliding with two Colorado Mesa University students on a scooter in 2016. The car driver, Michael Lee Dean, had methamphetamine in his system at the time of the crash, according to police reports. Defense attorneys argued during the trial that Dean was not necessarily under the influence or driving recklessly and had a green light. Defense attorney Kara Smith argued in court that one of the scooter riders “inadvertently contributed to the accident” by not wearing a helmet and by being an inexperienced rider.
Up
To BLM ranger Stephen Neel, who tracked down the people who dumped trash along a Moapa Valley, Nev., OHV trail and forced the culprits to clean up the mess. Neel learned of the dumping through OHV riders who discovered the trash while riding. They collected UPC numbers from some of the boxes and recorded their GPS coordinates, then turned the information over to the BLM. Fines for illegal dumping usually range between $150 and $1,000.
Down
To South Carolina officials who filed no charges in connection with a crash that killed a motorcyclist in February 2017. Shane Goodwin, 47, was riding home on his motorcycle when he was struck from behind by a car driven by the 17-year-old daughter of a state trooper. The Goodwin family was awarded $50,000 in a wrongful death lawsuit in late 2017. But the Anderson County, S.C., sheriff’s office filed no charges against the driver of the car.
