Biker Down Update: Brett Saks

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Subject: Fwd: Trial Date August 4th 2009
From: Prairiejean
This is the trial date for the man that killed Brett Saks (google him, amazing), 33 1/2 weeks ago on the Casa Grande HWY, please help all you can with court support.
Stay safe always,
Jean

Subject: Trial Date
Hi, everyone. I have information about the trial.

The case of The State of Arizona vs James Shapiro is going to trial on August 4th at 2:30. Mr. Shapiro has been charge with not giving 3 feet when passing a bicyclist. (azbikelaw.org/articles/ThreeFoot.html) Mr. Shapiro is not only NOT taking responsibility for hitting and killing Brett, but he is blaming Brett for the accident. There is absolutely NO evidence that Brett swerved in front of the car (from police report, markings on the road, and where Brett came to rest in the shoulder). He was hit directly from behind (as evidenced by the damage to his bike and other things I just mentioned) and was riding about 1.5-2 ft inside the white line because there was no shoulder on that stretch of road. The condition of the road (absence of a shoulder) remains the same for several miles before the accident site, so it is not as if the shoulder suddenly ended and Brett had to move on the road suddenly. Mr. Shapiro even states that he saw Brett ahead of him about .25 mile before he hit him. We still don’t know “the whole story”, and the witness who was driving behind Shapiro was not very clear about what he saw. He is still being sought out for a more detailed statement. Unfortunately, he has his own legal problems (domestic abuse charges) and has been hard to find as he has moved and doesn’t have a phone.

The county attorney is a very nice guy and despite Mr. Shapiro’s attorney asking several times for the case to be dropped, he said he wouldn’t even consider that. In our opinion, this is a case of a man not paying enough attention and certainly not giving 3 feet to pass as he should have. He may not have meant to do what he did, but he is still responsible.

We are asking that as many of you as possible try to be with us in the courtroom on the 4th at 2:30. It is a Tuesday, so we know it won’t be possible for some, but if you could be there, we would really appreciate the support.

Casa Grande Justice Court
820 E. Cottonwood Lane
Casa Grande, AZ 85222

mapquest.com/maps

Thanks so much for reading this and for your support.

Love,
Kim, Cathy, Larry, & Jodi

About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

4 Replies to “Biker Down Update: Brett Saks”

  1. You guys seem to have a high number of cyclists being hit by cars. Much more than New England. I feel for ya. I would be scared as hell to ride in your area.

    Everyone that can be there, get there and show support.

  2. “He may not have meant to do what he did, but he is still responsible.”

    That is a wonderful statement.

  3. This may be a question for Ryberg… But I’m wondering if there is an opportunity in a case like this (but not this particular case) for a third party to intervene on the side of plaintiff to ensure laws are enforced in the interest of bicycle safety writ large. Demonstrating harm would seem a long, long stretch for the intervening party, except for the fact that driver behavior is controlled to some degree by the degree to which traffic laws are actually enforced. If laws go unenforced, the safety of cyclists is ultimately compromised (the harm). I’m wondering if there’s a bicycle rights group that does legal action like this, or if there could be. Just wondering.

  4. Pingback: Daily Roundup: 3-feet-please legal test, Texans with broken shoulders, Kidical Mass returns, and more « Bike Intelligencer