The morning of June 23, 2009, in San Diego was brought in with a massive car wreck on State Route 163 that involved five vehicles on the freeway, including a school bus. The crash occurred near Mesa College and the highway was cleared a few hours later.
The San Diego five-car accident happened on the northbound side of the 163 freeway at Mesa College Drive just before 8 a.m., as reported by the California Highway Patrol. The road was narrowed down to two highway lanes, as well as the Mesa College Drive offramp for about an hour. The SigAlert was lifted at about 9:01 a.m. One of the five vehicles involved flipped onto its side. Paramedics who had arrived on the scene took had to take one motorist to Sharp Memorial Hospital due to injuries from the traffic accident. The victim's condition is still currently unknown. You can read more about this San Diego car crash
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Monday, September 7, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Driver Sentenced For Crash That Killed Bicyclist
EL CAJON, Calif. -- An unemployed drifter with a history of drunken driving convictions was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison for an alcohol-related hit-and-run crash that killed a bicyclist in Alpine.
Travis Chris Weber, 44, pleaded guilty May 26 to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and admitted an allegation of hit-and-run causing death.The 5 p.m. collision in the bicycle lane on eastbound Alpine Boulevard last Dec. 2 killed Edward Costa, a 30-year-old self-employed construction worker and father of two.Weber was taken into custody two days later.California Highway Patrol Officer Michael Edwards testified during a Jan. 21 preliminary hearing that when he searched a silver Ford F-150 belonging to the defendant, he found three empty half-pint bottles of vodka in the cab and seven empty beer cans in the bed of the vehicle.Edwards said he questioned Weber the night he was arrested outside the Liars' Club Tavern and Grill in Alpine. The defendant told him he had been on a drinking binge for five days and woke up in Campo hours after the collision and had no idea how he got there, the officer said.After his arrest, Weber had a blood-alcohol level of .19 percent, more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent, authorities said.San Diego County sheriff's Sgt. Joseph Sprecco testified that people who attended a memorial gathering at the crash site spotted the pickup truck in the parking lot across the street.CHP Officer Sid Turner said green paint from the victim's mountain bike was found on a bumper of the truck, and debris found at the scene -- specifically a broken headlight -- matched what remained on the truck.A woman testified that Weber rear-ended her about 20 minutes before the fatal crash, and that he became angry and screamed at her while they were exchanging information.Edwards said a witness told him he saw Weber drive away quickly from the fender-bender. The witness said the pickup went into the opposing traffic lanes and then over-corrected to the embankment.Weber had previous DUI convictions in New York and San Diego, said Deputy District Attorney Gordon Davis.
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Travis Chris Weber, 44, pleaded guilty May 26 to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and admitted an allegation of hit-and-run causing death.The 5 p.m. collision in the bicycle lane on eastbound Alpine Boulevard last Dec. 2 killed Edward Costa, a 30-year-old self-employed construction worker and father of two.Weber was taken into custody two days later.California Highway Patrol Officer Michael Edwards testified during a Jan. 21 preliminary hearing that when he searched a silver Ford F-150 belonging to the defendant, he found three empty half-pint bottles of vodka in the cab and seven empty beer cans in the bed of the vehicle.Edwards said he questioned Weber the night he was arrested outside the Liars' Club Tavern and Grill in Alpine. The defendant told him he had been on a drinking binge for five days and woke up in Campo hours after the collision and had no idea how he got there, the officer said.After his arrest, Weber had a blood-alcohol level of .19 percent, more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent, authorities said.San Diego County sheriff's Sgt. Joseph Sprecco testified that people who attended a memorial gathering at the crash site spotted the pickup truck in the parking lot across the street.CHP Officer Sid Turner said green paint from the victim's mountain bike was found on a bumper of the truck, and debris found at the scene -- specifically a broken headlight -- matched what remained on the truck.A woman testified that Weber rear-ended her about 20 minutes before the fatal crash, and that he became angry and screamed at her while they were exchanging information.Edwards said a witness told him he saw Weber drive away quickly from the fender-bender. The witness said the pickup went into the opposing traffic lanes and then over-corrected to the embankment.Weber had previous DUI convictions in New York and San Diego, said Deputy District Attorney Gordon Davis.
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Monday, August 10, 2009
Charges filed in fatal hit-run involving local cyclist
SAN DIEGO — Charges have been filed in an Illinois hit-and-run accident that killed a Chula Vista bicyclist who was on a cross-country ride to protest government bailouts.
Leon K. Marcum, 27, of Centralia, Ill., was charged with aggravated leaving the scene of an accident involving death in the Sunday crash that killed Jim Gafney, said Clinton County State's Attorney John Hudspeth.
Prosecutors are reviewing all details of the case, including Marcum's blood-alcohol level, and may also file felony driving under the influence charges, Hudspeth said.
Police originally cited Marcum for misdemeanor DUI and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, but those charges were withdrawn pending further review.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure we prosecute this case appropriately given the end result – that a man lost his life,” Hudspeth said.
Marcum was being held in jail on $100,000 bail, Hudspeth said.
Gafney, 65, a former Navy man and retired computer engineer who had worked at Camp Pendleton, was killed about 12:40 a.m. as he was riding his bike east on U.S. Route 50, about 60 miles east of St. Louis, Illinois State Police said.
He had left his home April 27 on what he had dubbed his “Mad As Hell Bike Ride Across U.S.” He was gathering signatures protesting what he called “taxation without representation” by politicians he referred to as “Obama prostitutes.”
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Leon K. Marcum, 27, of Centralia, Ill., was charged with aggravated leaving the scene of an accident involving death in the Sunday crash that killed Jim Gafney, said Clinton County State's Attorney John Hudspeth.
Prosecutors are reviewing all details of the case, including Marcum's blood-alcohol level, and may also file felony driving under the influence charges, Hudspeth said.
Police originally cited Marcum for misdemeanor DUI and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, but those charges were withdrawn pending further review.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure we prosecute this case appropriately given the end result – that a man lost his life,” Hudspeth said.
Marcum was being held in jail on $100,000 bail, Hudspeth said.
Gafney, 65, a former Navy man and retired computer engineer who had worked at Camp Pendleton, was killed about 12:40 a.m. as he was riding his bike east on U.S. Route 50, about 60 miles east of St. Louis, Illinois State Police said.
He had left his home April 27 on what he had dubbed his “Mad As Hell Bike Ride Across U.S.” He was gathering signatures protesting what he called “taxation without representation” by politicians he referred to as “Obama prostitutes.”
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Monday, July 20, 2009
Sportscaster won't face DUI charges
SAN DIEGO – The City Attorney's Office will not file drunken driving charges against Kyle Kraska, sports director of KFMB-Channel 8.
Kraska was arrested March 14 after he nearly struck a police officer near his Sabre Springs home, San Diego police said.
City attorney spokeswoman Gina Coburn said that prosecutors decided not to file charges because they believe the case couldn't be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Both the city attorney and police declined to release Kraska's blood-alcohol level.
Police said the officer was standing outside his patrol car at Angelique Street and Avonette Court about 8:20 p.m. on a juvenile runaway call when he saw a speeding car coming around the bend.
The officer said he flashed his lights and had to move out of the way so he wouldn't get hit, said police spokeswoman Mónica Muñoz. The driver, in a 2003 silver Mercedes, then accelerated and pulled into the driveway of his home nearby.
The officer followed and arrested Kraska.
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Kraska was arrested March 14 after he nearly struck a police officer near his Sabre Springs home, San Diego police said.
City attorney spokeswoman Gina Coburn said that prosecutors decided not to file charges because they believe the case couldn't be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Both the city attorney and police declined to release Kraska's blood-alcohol level.
Police said the officer was standing outside his patrol car at Angelique Street and Avonette Court about 8:20 p.m. on a juvenile runaway call when he saw a speeding car coming around the bend.
The officer said he flashed his lights and had to move out of the way so he wouldn't get hit, said police spokeswoman Mónica Muñoz. The driver, in a 2003 silver Mercedes, then accelerated and pulled into the driveway of his home nearby.
The officer followed and arrested Kraska.
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Monday, July 13, 2009
San Diego Jury: Police are Above the Law
After three days of deliberations, a jury San Diego — a militaristic community thoroughly besotted with people in state-issued costumes — acquitted police officer Frank White of felony gross negligent discharge of a firearm and a misdemeanor count of displaying a firearm in an “angry manner.”
The charges arose from a March 2008 “road rage” incident in which White shot Rachel Silva and her eight-year-old son. Silva had cut off White and backed into his car. She was shot twice in the arm and her son was hit once in the knee.
White, who was off-duty at the time and accompanied by his wife, initially claimed that he fired in “self-defense.” He later claimed that he fired his gun when Silva refused his demands to get out of her car. White never displayed a badge or identified himself as a police officer; witnesses to the shooting didn’t recognize the incident as a traffic stop or other enforcement action, but thought it was a domestic squabble.
Larry Ludlow, who has covered this case in the past, informs me: “During the trial, [White] lied several times and was caught in these lies, but the military-worshiping jurors didn’t care. They even swallowed the `fear of death’ excuse despite the difference in the size of the two vehicles — with [White's] vehicle being much larger.”
The case was also distorted by a grotesquely lenient charge: White should have been prosecuted for felonious assault with a deadly weapon, rather than “negligence.” In any case, owing to the fact that White was one of the state’s sanctified armed enforcers, he was acquitted of all charges and reinstated on the force.
Rachel Silva, on the other hand, admitted to being intoxicated and had the book thrown at her. She pleaded guilty to felony child endangerment and misdemeanor DUI charges. The only potentially positive aspect of this case is that Silva’s son will grow up with a usefully cynical attitude toward our tax-devouring “protectors.”
Source
The charges arose from a March 2008 “road rage” incident in which White shot Rachel Silva and her eight-year-old son. Silva had cut off White and backed into his car. She was shot twice in the arm and her son was hit once in the knee.
White, who was off-duty at the time and accompanied by his wife, initially claimed that he fired in “self-defense.” He later claimed that he fired his gun when Silva refused his demands to get out of her car. White never displayed a badge or identified himself as a police officer; witnesses to the shooting didn’t recognize the incident as a traffic stop or other enforcement action, but thought it was a domestic squabble.
Larry Ludlow, who has covered this case in the past, informs me: “During the trial, [White] lied several times and was caught in these lies, but the military-worshiping jurors didn’t care. They even swallowed the `fear of death’ excuse despite the difference in the size of the two vehicles — with [White's] vehicle being much larger.”
The case was also distorted by a grotesquely lenient charge: White should have been prosecuted for felonious assault with a deadly weapon, rather than “negligence.” In any case, owing to the fact that White was one of the state’s sanctified armed enforcers, he was acquitted of all charges and reinstated on the force.
Rachel Silva, on the other hand, admitted to being intoxicated and had the book thrown at her. She pleaded guilty to felony child endangerment and misdemeanor DUI charges. The only potentially positive aspect of this case is that Silva’s son will grow up with a usefully cynical attitude toward our tax-devouring “protectors.”
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