Posted on 05/16/2011 4:28:39 AM PDT by whd23
PELHAM - “I wasn’t going to let him pass me.”
That’s what police say a Windham teen told officers at the scene of a motor vehicle crash in Pelham early Friday morning, where the 18-year-old is said to have intentionally crashed his car into a motorcyclist, causing serious injuries.
Cody Eller of 123 Lowell Road in Windham was arraigned in Derry District Court Friday morning on a felony charge of second-degree assault and a misdemeanor charge of vehicular assault.
Police said Eller was driving south on Windham Road in Pelham around 4:30 a.m. Friday when he noticed a motorcyclist trying to pass him on the left, according to a police affidavit filed at Salem District Court.
William Hawksley, 45, of Brentwood, was identified by police as the driver of the Kawasaki ZX1400 motorcycle. Both were nearing the intersection of Tallant Road, according to the affidavit.
As Hawksley attempted to pass Eller’s Ford Fusion, Eller allegedly crossed into the northbound lane, nearly forcing the motorcycle off the road, said Pelham police prosecutor Dennis Mannion Friday morning.
Eller’s car then allegedly struck Hawksley on the right side, fracturing Hawksley’s leg in several places, said Mannion. Hawksley was taken to Parkland Medical Center in Derry where he awaited surgery Friday, he said.
Mannion said Eller told an officer at the scene that he intentionally steered his car toward Hawksley to prevent him from passing.
“Yes, he was passing me illegally,” Eller said, according to the affidavit.
Pelham police Lt. Gary Fisher said Friday that investigators believe Hawksley was in a legal passing zone at the time of the crash.
Mannion called the incident an extreme case of road rage.
“Obviously, that are acts of road rage from time to time, but this is the most serious I’ve seen in my career,” said Mannion. He has been in law enforcement for 16 years.
Mannion asked a Derry District Court judge Friday morning to set Eller’s bail at $5,000 cash, which was upheld. Before Friday, Mannion said Eller had no criminal record and only a single speeding ticket from 2010.
“We felt that the incident that took place this morning was serious enough that if he was released he would be a danger to public safety,” said Mannion.
Judge Kristin Spath chose not to grant Mannion’s request that the teen be barred from driving if released on bail.
“I’m hesitant at this point to adopt the state’s recommendation with respect to your not driving,” Spath told Eller during his arraignment. “Mostly, it’s in the hopes that you can be out looking for a job.”
Eller told the court he had recently lost his job and that he had been looking for work but had no luck.
If Eller makes bail and commits another driving violation, Spath said his bail could be revoked.
He is scheduled to appear in Salem District Court for a probable cause hearing May 23.
I don’t know about NH but in some states like VT the double yellow line does not mean “no passing”. Only if there is a sign
saying “no passing” is it not allowed.
Either way, the punk that rammed the biker needs his legs broken.
“I wasn’t going to let him pass me”. I have noticed this type of mentality by many drivers, both men and women. I don’t know what it is? Possibly more of a me-centered attitude? Does it really make a difference in someone’s life to be the front car? It is obvious that this teen/adult is a danger to society. I can’t imagine accidentally hitting a motorcyclist much less DELIBERATELY hitting one.
Perhaps he grew up in Asia? That type of driving is NORMAL over there.
"I'm going to be paying for everything, so I'm sorry for any cause of the accident," he said. "I did not mean to hurt or ham anyone, so don't think I am a harmful person."
He's sorry because he's going to be paying for "everything?" How about being sorry because you've realized that you're wrong?
Does "everything" include the pain, suffering and possible life-long complications the victim might have due to having his leg fractured in several places?
The motorcyclist was NOT AT FAULT. The teen was trying to PREVENT him from passing...............
Movies like “Fast and the Furious” and all their genre seem to have that effect on young minds.
I remember when “Vanishing Point” came out in the early 70’s muscle car era. After the movie, rubber was being burned all over the parking lots of movie theaters all across America..............
Or Italy............
Pelham police Lt. Gary Fisher said Friday that investigators believe Hawksley was in a legal passing zone at the time of the crash.
The motorcyclist was NOT AT FAULT. The teen was trying to PREVENT him from passing...............
To you cyclist out there,Please don’t get me wrong I say prosecute the kid for attempted murder,but at the same time these motorcyclist have to use some sense as well and operate their bikes in a safe manner.
I have NO wish to have the death of a motorcyclist on my mind for the rest of my life because he wants to do something stupid. I have No wish to be involved in his suicide.
“... it gave me something to think about”.
It certainly does. I truly believe the majority of people IF confronted by someone face to face after an altercation would be scared to death. The “bravado” would be gone (male or female). I also think it tends to say a lot more about our civility as a society now. You didn’t really hear or remember this stuff years ago. In fact, if you had a car problem and were parked on the side of the road, it was almost a guarantee that someone would stop to offer help. If someone was going under the limit, you passed the car when and if it was safe. You wouldn’t flip them the bird or any such nonsense. I wonder if the motto of today isn’t “lie, cheat, steal, take, grab... whatever it takes to get one step a head”. It shows on the roads IMHO.
Should lose the drivers license permanently!
If I see someone driving stupid, I just shake my head and maybe sing the @sshole song by David Allen Coe, and pray that he has a meeting with a trooper or deputy and have some sense talked into him. If the stupid is really bad and I have a plate, I call it in - which I have done. The only time I will aggressively pass is if the other driver is going dangerously slow (35 in a 65 for example) and I want to put as much distance from him as possible.
Just because a few daredevil idiots want to show off their bike’s undersides does not make all motorcyclists suicide jockeys. There are millions of law abiding cyclists that do not want to live fast and die young................
With spineless female judges like this one on the bench, criminals know they are safe from real punishment. The judge should be the one looking for a job, because she’s not doing the one she has.
As a rider myself, and having had the experience of having someone on the interstate try to do the same thing to me (three separate times) as I tried to get by him in another lane (8-lane interstate, 4 in each direction), my reaction to this is that the kid *needs* to have his driving privileges revoked for at least the next 10 years. This is nothing less than attempted vehicular manslaughter (I doubt the kid intended to actually kill the rider).
All that said, the ZX-14 is the fastest road-legal bike *on the planet*, and the rider should have known that the throttle is just as good as the brakes for avoiding idiots. This bike can do 0-100 faster than most performance cars can do 0-60, and 0-60 in under 2 seconds entirely in first gear, and will do a roll-on acceleration at any speed and in any gear that will wrench your arms out of their sockets. He should have been able to gas it and simply vanish into the distance the moment he saw the kid coming over. Now granted, sometimes when the excrement’s contacting the rotary blades when you’re riding, you don’t always think things through properly, but that’s all the more reason to make certain actions second-nature.
the area you show, near an intersection is clearly a no passign zone, however the investigators said in teh article that he was probably in a passing zone. it seems that you jjumped to a conclusion, based upon the offending driver, that the biker was in a no passing zone.
now that might be true, but why take some that might have been said to cover the guy’s behind over what the impartial investigators found?
that said, I understand that we all take our personal viewpoints when reading something like this article. it seems to me that the driver was wrong either way.
Actually, I didn't 'jump' to a conclusion, nor did I take either the offending driver's or the investigator's word at face value; I used "street view" on Google maps to examine the road markings leading up to the intersection to check for myself. Later, I realized that I had misread the direction of travel in the article and corrected my observation in a follow-up posting (post 17).
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