Distracted driver kills bicyclist in Sterling Heights
On Wednesday at 54-year old male cyclist was hit and killed by a motorist when she drove off the road in Michigan’s “safest city”, Sterling Heights.
Police say Julia Werth was traveling eastbound on 18 Mile between Mound and Ryan when she dropped something in her car. When she went to pick it up, she allegedly veered off the road and struck a 54-year-old man, who happened to be riding his bike on the gravel shoulder just a few feet ahead.
FOX 2 has learned Werth, the woman accused in this fatal accident, is 20 years old. We found out she has twelve points on her driving record for two alcohol violations, two speeding tickets and a car accident.
It is not clear if Werth will face any criminal charges.
The Macomb Daily is reporting that charges have not been filed as of today.
No, 18 Mile is not a Complete Street though facilities such as bike lanes don’t prevent bad drivers from killing others. In this case, the victim was apparently riding on the gravel shoulder. Complete Streets can make bicyclists more visible to drivers, but whether that would have helped in this case is merely speculation
One frustrating sideline to this story? Sterling Heights Police Lt. Dale Dwojakowski told the the Detroit Free Press:
“A bicycle can ride on the roadway and they do have all the rights a car would have,” he said. “Unfortunately, he wasn’t on the roadway, he was on a gravel shoulder. And even more unfortunate, there was a brand new sidewalk just installed about 15 feet from where he was riding.”
Perhaps it wasn’t the Lieutenant’s intent but it sounds like he would like to see cyclists on sidewalks. Fox 2 News echoed his comment as well.
At least they didn’t say it was “even more unfortunate” that he couldn’t afford a car.
The bottom line focus needs to be on the driver, who had a very poor driving record at a young age and apparently hadn’t learned from prior mistakes.
There is a Prosecute Julia Werth page on Facebook that has now grown to 203 people. UPDATE 12/6/2010: Facebook removed the original page. The replacement page is Justice for Jim Sawicki.
And if you have any tips regarding this crash, please call the Sterling Heights police at (586) 446-2892.
This is not the first bicyclist to be killed in Sterling Heights this year. This summer two motorists hit and killed a cyclist. The first motorist fled the crash scene.
In 2009 a cyclist was killed in Sterling Heights , as were two more in 2006.
From 2004 through 2009, there Sterling Heights averaged 0.40 bicyclist fatalities per 100,000 residents. These 2010 deaths will raise that rate significantly, making it much more than double the entire state of Michigan’s rate of 0.23 bicyclist fatalities per 100,000 residents. (The city of Detroit rate is 0.27.)
Clearly Sterling Heights isn’t Michigan’s safest city for bicycling — and that is most unfortunate.
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Tags: bicycle crash, Safety, Sterling Heights
December 4th, 2010 at 9:08 am
I wonder how much she i paying for car insurance with all those points. probably far less than someone like myself a black woman in detroit with no points. which is why I dont
want to own a car anymore. and I thought cyclist are supposed to use the road, not the sidewalk. it must be different there.
December 5th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Wondering if Facebook took down the “Prosecute Julia Werth” Page? The page now appears to redirect back to one’s personal wall. It had close to 300 Likes last night and now it doesn’t seem to exist anymore.
December 5th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Julia Werth’s personal page is no longer on-line either, but not before I recorded some of her more interesting comments (none after the crash.)
December 5th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
I sent an email the the city of Sterling Heights to tell them how I feel.
I feel that this incident reflects how I feel about drivers and laws that govern drivers. Not enough serious is taken with driving and I believe laws reflect this. It’s like many people view it in a similar fashion to how Todd Litman describers drivers, in an article titled “Selfish Automobile”. People view their actions in this context to the neglect of others. Just in regards to safety, they talk on cell phones, grab some important item, speed at will, tailgate and cut off other drivers, and the list could go on and on. The fact is, this man’s life will no longer go on, because of her actions and she has continued to be able to drive.
This should not be in my opinion. We spend how much money on police officers to sit and scratch theirselves, holding up one gun to tell them how fast someone is going. Make these fines more costly, for starters, as a deterrent.
Prosecute this woman and take away her license. She did not seem very remorseful and obviously does not take driving seriously. I would NEVER take my eyes off the road to grab something like that. Like I said, there are drivers that don’t take this responsibility seriously enough. I believe many do, but it doesn’t take five people to kill one person. It only takes one, and if they are in the minority, then make them pay.
December 5th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
The Facebook name is now “Justice for Jim Sawicki” as facebook deleted the original page, “Prosecute Julia Werth”
December 7th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Theanks MEL for the updated Facebook page name. The direct link is:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Jim-Sawicki/166331466735299?ref=ts&v=info#!/pages/Justice-for-Jim-Sawicki/166331466735299
January 5th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Several things
1) Yes, Ms Worth is being prosecuted. Heaven forbid the police conduct complete investigation and hand it over to the prosecutor before the lynching rope is strung up.
2) No, Bike Lanes would not have saved Mr Sawicki. He was riding in the same area a bike line would be located. Riding on the sidewalk would have avoided this incident.
3) There are several variable which determin safety. It is simplistic to say one is better then the other (lane vs sidewalk.) One factor to consider in the future – Speed. I believe the speed limit there is 45 mph. This means the relative speed was probrably about 35 mph. A “t-bone” between a cyclist and an auto at an business entrance would be about 10-15 mph.
4) The 0.4 vs 0.27 rate is irrelavent. These are small numbers – One collision and a cities safety record will be blown.
5) Lastly, sorry to be a grumpity gruff, I do enjoy your site (don’t always agree) keep up the good work.
January 6th, 2011 at 8:19 am
“No, Bike Lanes would not have saved Mr Sawicki. He was riding in the same area a bike line would be located. Riding on the sidewalk would have avoided this incident.”
This is speculation on both sides but having marked bike lanes makes drivers aware of the possibility that bikers may be in the area. Would that have made a difference? Who can know? But we do know that forcing people to ride on sidewalks doesn’t make them safer. In fact, studies have shown that they are more dangerous precisely because drivers aren’t looking for bikes on sidewalks.
January 11th, 2011 at 7:59 pm
As Andrew notes, I think you can defend or attack any facility based upon one event. Some times riding against traffic can avoid certain crashes. But, if you aggregate the data, over time that practice is shown to be less safe.