John Greenfield and I have teamed up to bring you closer to the sustainable transportation issues and culture that matters to Chicagoans and Illinoisans.
We’ll both continue writing for our respective blogs when it doesn’t fit the theme of Grid.
Page 98 of 173
Carnage culture: Extrapolating blood alcohol content levels
A breathalyzer test, to measure an automobile driver’s Blood Alcohol Content (BAC), is not always administered at the time and scene of a crash. I don’t know why it took four hours for Drew Forquer to have his BAC measured, but it registered at 0.045 percent, slightly more than half the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
Drew was convicted on Friday, June 17, 2011, of reckless homicide and aggravated drunken driving, but not “aggravated DUI charges that specified he was over the legal limit.”
…but the judge said it was clear to him simply from the results of field-sobriety tests, eyewitness testimony and Forquer’s “bizarre” turn — which was caught on surveillance video — that he was impaired.
The prosecution hired an expert witness to extrapolate Drew’s BAC at the time of the crash, “estimated…to be from 0.084 to 0.123 percent.”
What extrapolation means
Using evidence, prosecution and defense argue about the estimated BAC based on a variety of factors, including:
- witness statements about driving behaviors (prosecution)
- evidence of drinking before or during crash (prosecution)
- field sobriety test (prosecution)
- individual’s metabolism (defense)
- “what the driver ate or drank that day” (defense)
- other health issues (defense)
(The parentheses indicate which side used the factor in Drew Forquer’s case.)
In Drew’s case, his defense attorney argued that the BAC was lower because him having liver disease and chronic alcoholism would have slowed his metabolism (meaning alcohol would enter the blood stream more slowly).
Drew awaits sentencing, which can be from probation to 15 years in prison. They must be joking about probation – he’s gone to court for four previous DUI arrests!
More carnage culture articles
- From Steven Can Plan
- Streetsblog’s “The Weekly Carnage” feature
Story sources
Chicago Tribune – Thursday, June 16, 2011
Chicago Tribune – Friday, June 17, 2011
A taxi driver exited Lake Shore Drive and drove across the grass separating it from the Lakefront Trail. This photo, taken on July 4, 2010, is not related to the story above. Photo by Andrew Ciscel.
My protected bike lane drawing from 2007
I was looking through my most popular bits on Flickr and came across this drawing I made in January 2007.
Notice how I put a bike rack in the street. Portland starting on-street bike parking corrals in 2002, I believe.
It looks surprisingly like the Kinzie Street bike lane 😉
I cannot remember from where I got the inspiration to draw this. I hadn’t yet traveled to New York City or Portland; I probably saw a drawing of this on Streetsblog for a facility that would soon be built in New York City (9th Avenue cycle track popped up later in 2008).
I don’t remember my obsession with bicycle planning beginning that early.
Photo of B747-200F up close and personal
From a private bus tour around O’Hare Airport.
Photo of Southern Air’s Boeing 747-200F (F for freight/cargo) by Duane Rapp. See the original photo.
My first iPhone app – Request a bike rack
Here’s a video preview of my first iOS app that will hopefully, in the end, allow you to request a bike rack in Chicago based on where you and your device are currently standing.
I don’t know if it will ever hit the Apple App Store because Apple requires developers to pay a $99 fee each year. I’m surely not going to pay this. It will be able to run on jailbroken iOS devices and it will work on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
The code is based on my Bike Crash Portal website that asks permission to use your location (given automatically through HTML5 and the computer’s own location software). A fork of this project may include a mobile-optimized website that allows you to request a bike rack; again, based on your current location.
The purpose of this is to eliminate the need to know the address of where you want to request a bike rack. Oftentimes a person will arrive at their destination and not find any bike racks. Open the app, hit “Share my location” when the app loads and then tap submit. The Chicago Bicycle Parking Program (hopefully) will receive your request.