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Patrolman Under Scanner in Cyclist Accident
March 13, 2008

Tragedy struck a group of cyclists, one of them an Olympic hopeful on Sunday when they were struck by a patrol car driven by a member of Santa Clara County Sheriff's department. The cyclists who were killed were Matt Peterson and Kristy Gough. The third cyclist, Christopher Knapp was injured. A fourth cyclist Daniel Brasse was cycling on ahead and therefore didn't meet the same fate as his friends. According to witnesses, there was nothing in the weather or the road conditions that pointed to the possibility of an accident. It was daytime, and it was a sunny morning with clear visibility, when Deputy James Council, who was driving his patrol car, came at them, and knocked the three off their cycles.

Petersen died at the scene while, Gough died at hospital a few hours later. According to eyewitnesses, who included a doctor who was at the scene and rushed to give emergency aid to the victims, the deputy was walking around in a daze after the accident murmuring that he had fallen asleep at the wheel. He seemed very disoriented, witnesses said.

What happened next seems even more surprising. Another deputy at the scene escorted Council back to his squad car and prevented him from speaking to anybody. He was reportedly taken to a crisis center to recover from the trauma. There was no instant alcohol test to check for drunken driving, as is the norm in such cases. It is this seeming partial treatment of their own that has placed Santa Clara County under a microscope.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith was adamant that the department showed no special concern for Council and treated him the way ordinary citizens would be treated if they had caused a fatal accident. That seems a little hard to believe. If you or I were in an accident that caused hardly any injuries, and the cops had even the slightest inkling that we had had too much to drink, you can be sure they would whip out a chalk and draw a line on the street in a jiffy. That doesn't seem to have happened in James Council's case at all. The man had just managed to cause the death of two persons and had gotten away with nothing more than a comforting arm around the shoulder from his fellow deputies.

Even more strange is the circumstances of the accident. How did a deputy driving his patrol car manage to veer off across a double yellow line and into a group of cyclists? Was there alcohol or drugs involved? For now, there has been no information on whether any blood sample has been taken to check for alcohol, so we have no way of knowing yet. Furthermore, Council's father has been a deputy for over 23 years. Have all these factors colored the County's judgment and caused it to become a little more partial towards the patrolman? We can expect the answer in coming days.

Also disturbing is Council's previous brush with the law. Prior to being hired by the sheriff's department, he had been convicted of street racing. Back in 2001, Council was also charged with 2 drunken driving counts. These might or might not have a bearing on the case, but the fact is that this is a man who on at least two occasions in his life had thought nothing of getting behind a wheel too inebriated to drive. These incidents taken separately might not seem like more than youthful folly, but taken together in the context of Sunday's horrible tragedy, they do seem to suggest that Council should probably not have been behind the wheel of his squad car that day.

Riding a bicycle can be treacherous, especially with the number of careless car drivers with which bikers are forced to share the road. If you have lost a loved-one in a bike accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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