Congressman driver in fatal crash

WorldNet Daily ^ | 08/17/2003 | WorldNetDaily

[Chad Fairbanks]

Police officials say U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D., was driving a car that collided with a motorcycle in rural South Dakota yesterday, leaving the biker dead.

Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D.

The freshman congressman, 63, also had an unidentified staff member in his vehicle, according to the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader.

Janklow was driving a Cadillac near the small town of Trent, some 25 miles north of Sioux Falls, said Col. Dan Mosteller of the South Dakota Highway Patrol.

The Argus-Leader quotes Moody County Coroner Tad Jacobs as saying his dominant impression of the accident was that "the cyclist was not wearing a helmet. That's the major thing." Jacobs characterized the collision as "a motorcyclist headed eastbound. A car ran the intersection going southbound and struck the motorcyclist," who was pronounced dead at the scene "from extensive trauma from impact."

The Associated Press identified the victim of the crash as Randolph E. Scott, 53, of Hardwick, Minn.

Janklow's son Russ says his father feels "absolutely horrible'' about what happened, adding he's never seen his dad so distraught, according to AP.

Routine blood samples were taken to determine if alcohol or drugs factored into the cause of the crash, but results are still not in.

State Attorney Bill Ellingson offered no comment last night, so it's unclear if any charges are to be filed.

Janklow was just elected to the House of Representatives last November, after serving four terms as governor of South Dakota, as well as state attorney general in the 1970s.

He's also served in the Marine Corps from 1956-1959, and his father was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg war-criminal trials.

[DAPFE8900]

Here we go the dems new mantra. "Republicans want to kill old people, kids and NOW BIKERS.." I can see it now Terry MCCasshole has gotten the presses going and the talking points are heading out!

[spunkets]

The intersection was marked, both ways with the appropriate ID signs. The bike was headed east on 14. The congressman was headed S on 13. I'd guess their would be no stop for the bike, but one for those on 13. 14 is a major e-w road. Looks like the congressman wasn't watching where he was going and the cops are offering him help. Folks don't run intersections; they run stop signs. The biker should have seen the intersection sign and anticipated though.

[spunkets]

"Not wearing a helmet, eh? A clear case of contributory negligence."

The congressman blew the stop sign and t-boned the biker at high speed. Helmets don't do anything in that case. The cops wouldn't let anyone through, because of the massive wreckage.

[quark]

He should get Sinator Robert C. "ShaKKKey" Byrd to represent him. That fossil's been stopped for traffic violations more times than any of the criminal class we kindly call members of Congress -- and gotten away with it every time!

[Chad Fairbanks]

THis was in Breaking News - wonder why it was pulled? Any idea?

[wysiwyg]

I remember that too, but couldn't find it here.

[spunkets]

There's another post here from last night. Otherwise I don't know.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Could be.... I did a search on the keywords "JANKLOW", and "CONGRESSMAN" etc... and didn't find it though. Weird...

[Agnes Heep]

I was speaking sarcastically, but your point is taken. I think the day is coming, in the not-too-distant future, when everyone in the country will go about their daily lives wearing full suits of medieval body armor.

[spunkets]

Sorry, I missed the sarcasm. The air bag folks give me the creeps. I do think the biker should have kept an eye out approaching the intersection. He would have felt better anyway.

[irgbar-man]

For Janklow, it was an accident. For Bill & Hill, it's a way of life.

[thegreatbeast]

It might have been an unmarked intersection. There were plenty of those in the rural Midwest when I grew up there. In the blinding prairie sunlight, and with crops growing tall along the roadside, it might have been very hard to see a motorcyclist. Or maybe it was swamp gas, or the planet Venus.... No, seriously, no one has any excuse to run an intersection. Charge the congressman with reckless driving or something. He did wrong and must face the consequences but, no, there is no reason to think that this should be manslaughter or anything. Feeling bad about something is not sufficient punishment for the loss of a life.

[SoDak]

If he goes, I assume that Rounds replaces him. Hopefully does his homework. I wouldn't mind Gary Hansen for one. I just hope it's not some old warhorse like Pressler. But, who knows. After seeing the pictures of the site, it's not cut and dry. How fast does a bike need to be going to shove a 95 DeVille off the road into a cornfield? And, if it's going way fast, would it have been seen in time with the little hill right there? Hard to say. Any which way it goes, if they prove that Janklow blew the stopsign, he's fried, as he should be if it was his fault that man died.

[SoDak]

Actually, the bike impacted the side of the car. The passenger side rear-end. At least that's the version I'm hearing tonight.

[spunkets]

Was it a 2 way stop?

[spunkets]

I see the description of the signs in your post. The bike would be ~820+ lbs with rider and gear, assuming he's traveling. That's not enough to send the caddie into the corn field, but it's enough to send it out of control if it was crusing. The caddie suspension is wobbly in situations like this, but not if it's going slow. ie. pulling out from a stop at a stop sign. It would just break the back tires free and the caddie would rotate a bit, but not leave the road. Most of the imact E would go into smashing the caddie's body and bike. So, it sounds like the caddie spun out.

[spunkets]

Bike probably tried to go around the back of the caddie.

[The Great RJ]

The secrecy, gag orders and unusual behavior by local law enforcement surrounding this case make the Vince Foster suicide look wide open. The crash site was sealed for nearly two days, the caddie and motorcycle have disappeared and several eye witnesses refuse to say anything.

Congressman Janklow by his own admission is a notoriously fast driver and made an appearance at a veteran's event 175 miles away from the scene little over two hours before the crash. In a similar fatal crash in the same jusridiction less than a month before, press were allowed on scene within hours and information from preliminary reports was made public within a day. Clearly this accident is being handled far differently than is typical in this state and most of the people I've talked to believe that a cover-up is going on.

[JoeSixPack1]

This is pretty much turning into spin city.

There have been a couple of other threads posted on this and now 24 hours after the death of the biker we are led to believe the biker hit Janklow?

I'm working on my first cup of coffee (rough night, Diane the roadeo queen was here :), anyway, the physics of this new story doesn't add up.

Let's say the biker had a full dress monster bike. that would be 750lbs+ of bike and whatever the rider weighed in at. Add the speed the bike was traveling and you have kinetic energy, velocity, etc. Then we assume Janklows vehicle had minimal weight in the rear. Although the possibility does exist for the bike to have impacted the car, I think Janklows vehicle, being driven by someone other than Janklow, smacked the biker while in full mode panic braking and whatever position the car was in when it came to a stop was caused by the abrupt after-the-impact skid.

Resulting hypothesis,
some days you're the bug, somedays you're the windshield.

Prayers to the family of the biker. Janklows got this thing under control. The 'at fault' vehicle has become the victim.

The truth lays with the dead biker. I still subscrib to a t-bone scenario because the first reports happened before the spin machine was set in motion.

[SoDak]

I don't see how in the world any kind of coverup is happening. His arch-nemesis, Hennies, a cop from Rapid even claims it's routine. Janklow has WAY too many enemies to cover up squat. Clearly, if you intend to indict, and eventually prosecute a sitting congressman, you want your ducks in a row. I don't see this as strange at all.