Ohio - no jail time for cyclist's death

Driver gets no jail time in Pelotonia cyclist's death
Victim's family was 'not out for blood'
Tuesday, February 8, 2011  02:51 AM
By Mary Beth Lane and Holly Zachariah
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/02/08/driver-sentenced-in-pelotonia-cyclists-death.html?sid=101

LOGAN, Ohio - A Hocking County man will serve six days of community service
after pleading no contest yesterday to vehicular manslaughter for his role
in the death of a bicyclist riding in a charity event in August.

Ervin Blackston, of Rockbridge, did not address Hocking County Municipal
Judge John T. Wallace in court or talk to reporters afterward. His
attorney, Tim Gleeson, said, "Mr. Blackston has a tremendous amount of
regret and remorse."

Blackston took a negotiated plea deal after he initially pleaded not guilty
to the second-degree misdemeanor charge of vehicular manslaughter for the
death of 57-year-old Michelle Kazlausky of Reynoldsburg.

Kazlausky was riding her bicycle on the Columbus-to-Athens leg of the
Pelotonia Tour for cancer research on Aug. 21 when Blackston hit her during
a rainstorm at the intersection of Rts. 180 and 374 in rural Hocking County.

Brake failure was blamed in the crash.

Wallace sentenced Blackston to 90 days in jail and suspended 87 days. He
gave Blackston the option of serving three days in jail or six days of
community service. Blackston took community service.

Wallace also fined him $750 but suspended $500 of it. He gave Blackston six
months to pay the $250 fine after Gleeson said his client needed the time
to muster the money. The judge also suspended Blackston's driver's license
for a year before reducing it to six months. He also ordered a year on
probation.

Kazlausky's family did not attend the sentencing. Her brother-in-law, Jack
Koelbl, said afterward in a telephone interview that the family was
satisfied with the plea agreement and sentence.

"We felt he had enough on his mind just hitting her," Koelbl said. "We were
not out for blood because nothing was going to bring her back anyway. It
was pointless for him to go to jail.

"It was an accident. It's not like he set out that day to intentionally
hurt anybody."

Kazlausky's twin, Patti Byerly, filed a civil lawsuit in Hocking County
Common Pleas Court on Jan. 28 against Blackston and his brother, Earl, who
owned the truck involved in the collision.

Neither of the Blackstons had liability insurance, according to the
accident report. Byerly said she wants the case to serve as a reminder that
driving without insurance is against the law and that there are
consequences to breaking it.

After the crash, Ervin Blackston, 58, told authorities that he had just
that morning repaired the truck's brakes.

But an inspection by mechanics at Don Wood Automotive in Athens two days
after the crash showed that the brake that failed on the 1985 Ford F-150
was not one that had recently been worked on, said Jonah Saving, an
assistant Hocking County prosecutor, who was present at the inspection.

The conclusion was that the brake line to the front left side was leaking
brake fluid and had lost pressure, causing it to fail. That brake had not
recently been replaced, Saving said.

The mechanics found that the braking system on the back left and the front
right were the ones that had been repaired.

Ervin Blackston also was charged with a misdemeanor equipment violation for
not properly maintaining the brakes, but the judge dismissed the charge.

mlane-ltuy86wXTqdWk0Htik3J/[email protected]
hzachariah-ltuy86wXTqdWk0Htik3J/[email protected]