Settlement Reached in Santa Clara County Fatality Involving Dozing Sheriff Deputy
In March of 2008, James Council, a Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy, was driving his cruiser when he struck a group of three bicyclists, resulting in the death of two of them. Matt Peterson of San Francisco and Kristy Gough of San Leandro were killed instantly in the crash, which is said to have been caused by the deputy dozing off at the wheel.
In October, the county settled for $1.2 million with Gough’s mother, Karen Clarkson in a wrongful death lawsuit that was filed. Peterson’s parents settled in July for $2.3 million. Recently, Gough’s father obtained $800,000 in a settlement with the county, and the only surviving bicyclist, Christopher Knapp, has a personal injury lawsuit that is still pending.
Santa Clara county and James Council, the sheriff deputy involved in the crash, have taken responsibility for the tragedy. Council pleaded guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, and was sentenced to four months in jail. He was on a 12 hour shift the day the accident occurred, and had been on his shift for 4 1/2 hours when the accident took place. The previous day, he had completed a 12 1/2 hour shift. The deceased, Peterson and Gough, were prominent cyclists and were part of a team riding with a San Mateo racing group, in which about a dozen cyclists were participating. People in similar situations must contact a qualified San Jose personal injury attorney.
Gough had taken up road racing just shortly before the accident took place, and was a professional triathlete. Peterson had won a road racing event in Merced just a week prior to the tragic accident, and was an amateur road racing cyclist.
Gough’s fathers settlement comes at a particularly heavy with litigation related to bicyclists. Recently, a Los Angeles doctor was convicted of striking and seriously injuring two bicyclists in a moment of road rage. The physician, Christopher Thomson, is to be sentenced in December and is accused of pulling out in front of the two cyclists after yelling at them, causing them to strike his car. The injured cyclists claim that the doctor purposely pulled out in front of them. While the doctors behavior is an example of the worst kind of extreme road rage, California face milder situations of this type of behavior every day.
California bicyclist accident lawyers are abhorred by Thomson’s behavior, whose trial was followed closely by Los Angeles bicycle accident attorneys, auto safety agencies and bicycling groups in California. For those people who do not believe that bicycles belong on the road with motorists, this conviction has sent out a very strong and unmistakable message.
The Reeves Law Group has offices across California, and is dedicated to representing clients as San Jose personal injury attorneys, including victims of bicycle accidents. Please contact us for a free consultation at (800) 644-8000.