Digging through my unfinished stories I found this one from 2014.
Anne Arundel County police say a driver who hit two bicyclists, seriously injuring one of them, has been arrested on numerous charges, including driving under the influence of alcohol.
Officers say 54-year-old Robin Vera Colbert of Annapolis was arrested Wednesday on 11 charges. The State's Attorney's Office says she was indicted on July 18.
Police say on June 28, Colbert was driving south on Governor Ritchie Highway in Annapolis when she drove onto the right shoulder. Officers say shoulder is marked as the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail.
Investigators say Colbert hit 23-year-old Katie Pohler of Glen Burnie and 27-year-old Todd Green of Severna Park, who were biking on the trail portion.
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Robin Vera Colbert was driving a grey Nissan along Route 50. She took an exit ramp toward Ritchie Highway but missed and ended up on the Baltimore & Annapolis (“B&A”) Bicycle Trail instead. There she struck two cyclists from behind Katie Pohler and Todd Green. Bystanders called 911 and applied pressure to a bleeding wound to Pohler’s neck. Paramedics arrived quickly and summoned helicopters to transport Pohler and Green to Shock Trauma. Later Pohler would be diagnosed as suffering from a broken fibula, ulna, collarbone, shoulder blade, and vertebrae. She also suffered a lacerated carotid artery and a crushed trachea.
I believe this occurred on this section of the trail. Perhaps some separation is needed here.
Colbert pleaded guilty to two of the 11 charges late in the year and was sentenced to three years in prison with all but 18 months suspended. She also had to serve five years of supervised probation.
Colbert had also been driving with a 3-year-old relative in the car, prosecutors said, and she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 at the time, which is nearly double the legal limit. The 3-year-old was not injured.
So, she should probably not drive again, certainly not without an interlock device.
Pohler was interviewed two-years later.
"I had maybe six or seven surgeries overall, the first of which was to save my life,” she said.
Daily reminders of the crash that nearly took her life physically mark her. “I had a broken fibula, a broken left arm and my right hand has plates in it,” she said. Pohler also suffered fractures to her right collarbone, right shoulder blade and spinal cord.
Scars spread across her right shoulder out from under her sleeveless top — evidence of the crash — and there are other scars across her throat. Pohler added, “Something went through to my airway and hit my vocal chords and carotid artery.” She says that injury changed the way she speaks: damage to the vocal chords has given her voice a raspy quality. The plate in her hand restricts her movement somewhat, and Pohler says she doesn’t think her right shoulder will ever return to full function; that’s something frustrating for an athletic young woman who, with her boyfriend, loves to take part in sports.
Colbert got lucky that she hit young healthy people who could survive such a crash or she'd have a murder/manslaughter on her hands.
She appealed on grounds that the breathalyzer test was unconstitutional, but lost. I assume she has served her time by now and is out of jail.
She was sued by Pohler in 2017, but that case was settled prior to trial.
The Google view you link to in your post ironically shows another issue regarding cycling lanes: Note the orange sign indicating a lane closure, placed pretty much in the center of the bike lane. This forces cyclists to move to the left into traffic likely travelling at 50 mph. I see this kind of thing regularly while riding in the MD/DC area. Annoying, and dangerous.
Posted by: Kolo Jezdec | August 01, 2018 at 03:58 PM