CALIFORNIA BICYCLE NEWS AND CYCLING SAFETY TIPS BLOG

A judge in Santa Maria, California extended the deadline for a defendant to consider a plea bargain in a fatal DUI bicycle accident case, according to the SantaMariaTimes.com. Aaron Richard Ceja, 20, of Nipomo, is facing vehicular manslaughter and DUI charges after crashing into a cyclist in rural Arroyo Grande in June of 2011. His blood alcohol concentration was over twice the legal limit. Ceja’s attorney, James Royer, believes they may be close to reaching a plea bargain with the prosecution. “I don’t want him to think he was forced into anything,” says Royer. “I don’t want him to feel pressured. We are close to a resolution.” Royer claims that there is an offer from prosecution that includes a prison sentence, but did not specify how long. Royer says his client deserves to serve his time in a County Jail as opposed to a state prison, citing that this is…
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According to police reports, Satnam Singh had a blood-alcohol concentration on .39 percent when he struck a cyclist in Ventura, California, according to the Ventura County Star. Singh struck 20-year-old cyclist Nick Haverland with his Hummer SUV on May 11, 2011, killing him instantly. Singh was almost 5 times over the legal limit at the time of the accident. Marc Biederman, Singh’s attorney, argued that the prosecution should drop the second-degree murder charges because his client was too drunk to have intentionally disregarded human life. “The degree of intoxication was so high it would have rendered him incapable to entertain any kind of implied malice,” said Biederman. Before striking Haverland, Singh had already knocked over two other cyclists and rear-ended a car. Judge Charles Campbell was not buying into that logic and refused to dismiss the murder charge. “And then he hits this boy on a bicycle completely without any…
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