Concord police said the conduct of a driver who struck and killed a bicyclist in September did not warrant criminal-stage expenses even though her license become suspended at the time of the crash. A state regulation says a person who is using a suspended license and causes a crash that effects extreme harm may be charged with a legal punishable with the aid of up to 7 years in jail.
After consulting New Hampshire State Police, metropolis and county prosecutors, and different professionals in accident reconstruction, the branch delivered a misdemeanor rate of vehicular attack towards Jessica Warren, forty-one, of Concord about the crash that killed correctional officer Patrick Bettens.
Warren also faces a misdemeanor fee of driving with a suspended or revoked license, in addition to violations for traveling over a solid line and following a car too carefully, namely Bettens’ bicycle. The misdemeanor charged carries a maximum penalty of three hundred and sixty-five days in jail. The information of the charges pissed off Bettens’s mom, Patricia Bettens, who stated the woman accused of fatally hanging her son needs to face severe extra costs.
“Maybe not murder, however, why now not as minimum manslaughter?” she said Sunday from her domestic in Muskegon, Mich., in which her son grew up. “Why no longer reckless using or negligent homicide, or vehicular manslaughter?”
The months-long investigation through Concord police discovered that Warren “turned into chargeable for the crash in that she did not exercise due care” via riding too carefully at the back of Bettens, police stated in an assertion final month.
“We are responsible for ensuring we can prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt in the courtroom,” Concord police Lt. Sean Ford stated Friday. “We did now not come to this selection gently; there has been lengthy and thorough research that confirmed a lack of anxious factors. It’s nonetheless a tragic outcome.”
Bettens said the investigation had left her with even more questions about the crash and the final moments of her son’s life. Being a long way far from Concord hasn’t helped with the family’s pain and frustration surrounding the case, she said. “We aren’t glad our member of the family is dead and has orphans,” she stated. Patricia Bettens also puzzled whether or not the driving force of a UPS truck that witnesses said turned into parked in the bike lane will face any prices.
The bike owner changed into heading north on Route three in September when Warren’s car struck him from in the back of, police said. Bettens had moved into the road to keep away from a UPS truck parked in the motorbike lane, consistent with witness statements. The van hit Bettens’s returned tire, which caused him to fall off the bike and into the van’s route. Witnesses said that Warren’s vehicle then jumped the cut-down and headed back throughout the road, placing another car.
A state regulation says that someone riding after suspension of a license may be charged with a Class B felony punishable a maximum of seven years in jail if the motive force is worried in a severe twist of fate. While prosecutors must show that the individual’s “unlawful operation of the motor vehicle brought about or materially contributed to the collision,” any violation of the rules of the road may be taken into consideration as proof in opposition to the defendant.
Bicycles are dealt with as automobiles in New Hampshire, and riders must keep on with the road or a bike lane no matter site visitors’ situations. Some laws, just like the far-proper law and the 3-foot regulation, are meant to guard cyclists by dictating how plenty of space motorists need to give cyclists and in which bikers should journey.
Police stated they ruled out driver impairment and texting even as riding in this example. Warren is scheduled to be arraigned on April 1 in Concord’s district courtroom. Bettens, 41, of Concord changed into hired via the New Hampshire Department of Corrections and labored in the guys’ nation jail in Concord. An athlete who cherished to motorbike, run and swim, he turned into schooling for a triathlon when he becomes killed this past fall.
