Thread: CO: Calculations show suspect hit speed of 77 mph in triple

Wanted to piggyback this story to a previous one but due to the high volume, decided to just post alone.
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Calculations show suspect hit speed of 77 mph in triple fatal
By April M. Washington

Originally published 07:19 p.m., September 30, 2008
Updated 11:56 p.m., September 30, 2008

The driver of the Chevy Suburban involved in the Sept. 4 crash that killed two women and a toddler at an ice cream shop ran a red light at 77 mph - making it impossible for the driver of a pickup to avoid the collision, said an expert who reconstructed the accident.

The SUV driver, Francis Hernandez, hit the Mazda pickup at such a high speed and with such force that it pushed the truck more than 100 feet into a Baskin- Robbins ice cream shop, said Donald Fymbo, a licensed insurance adjuster and investigator.

Two women in the pickup truck, driver Patricia Guntharp, 49, of Centennial, and Debbie Serecky, 51, of Aurora, were killed. They were turning left into a Good Times restaurant when they were broadsided by the southbound SUV on South Havana Street, police said. The speed limit on the street is 40 mph.

Marten Kudlis, 3, was killed when the careening wreckage snared him from a window seat at Baskin- Robbins and dragged him to his death.

Hernandez, 23, an illegal immigrant, is being held in the Arapahoe County jail on charges of vehicular homicide, fleeing the scene of the crash and other charges.

"When this lady started to make a left turn across Havana, this guy was a block and half away," Fymbo said. "The way he was tearing down the street there was no way she could have seen him coming at her. He wiped her out."

In Fymbo's opinion: "It's 100 percent his fault."

Fymbo contacted the Rocky Mountain News and invited a reporter to watch him take measurements and make calculations that are the basis of his conclusions. Both visited the accident scene Friday evening.

Fymbo said he is not working for anyone involved in the collision or the investigation. He contacted the newspaper, he said, because he was perplexed by comments made to the Rocky by Kallman Elinoff, the attorney who represents Hernandez. In a recent interview, Elinoff suggested Guntharp was at fault.

"I've been reconstructing accidents for over 20 years, and I've driven around the area and made that same turn before," Fymbo said. "The attorney's assessment of the crash didn't add up. That's why I'm out here."

In a story published Sept. 16, Elinoff charged that Guntharp crossed the double-yellow line and made an illegal left turn 40 yards from the intersection of South Havana Street and East Mississippi Avenue, causing the crash. "This kid (Hernandez) was in the far right lane, and he wasn't expecting this woman to scoot in front of him," Elinoff told the newspaper. "She never looked to see if anyone was coming."

But Fymbo has another viewpoint. "As a scientist all I can tell you is what the physical evidence tells me. . . . There was no way to see him coming."

Elinoff could not be reached Tuesday for comment on Fymbo's findings, which are based, in part, on the force of impact and the distances between vehicles.

"Anyone can draw his or her own conclusion, but the pure science shows (the SUV driver) was driving really fast to shove the pickup 105 feet down the street," Fymbo said. Aurora police spokesman Bob Friel declined to comment on Fymbo's findings.

But police have said that Hernandez was driving between 65 mph and 80 mph when he ran the red light and struck the Mazda.

Police cleared Guntharp of wrongdoing and traffic violations based on their reconstruction of the crash scene and witness accounts. Hernandez, who was born in Guatemala and entered the U.S. illegally in 1991, had been arrested almost 20 times in the past five years and had nine misdemeanor convictions, authorities said.


www.rockymountainnews.com

Well gosh....now his attorney will have to use Plan B and portray his client as such a decent, deeply religious, devoted family man that he was rushing home from his job that no American will do, just to gaze in adoration upon the loving faces of his wife and kiddies.

I hope this piece of......human refuse.....gets every last day in prison that his ass deserves.

That lawyer's "blame the victim" defense is really going to come back to haunt him ( and his client). I am so glad these findings are coming out, and especially when this man has NO tie in to either side, just the side of truth!

If you want to know more about this extremely sad situation, go to www.khow.com and listen to the archives of Peter Boyles.
This whole situation is the fault of Colorado Gov. Ritter. He was the DA for the Denver area and he gave drug dealers, drunks, and all others an "Ag trepass" deal so they wouldn't be deported. He has these people blood on his hands. He needs to be voted out of office.