After sentencing Chase Daniel Jones last month to more than 17 years in prison, the judge tacked on a novel condition should he drive again: His vehicle must be equipped with a device that prevents accelerating far beyond the speed limit.

Virginia this year became the first state to agree to give its judges such a tool to deal with the most dangerous drivers on the road. Washington, D.C., already is using it and similar measures await governors’ signatures in Washington state and Georgia. New York and California also could soon tap the GPS-based technology to help combat a recent national spike in traffic deaths.

“It’s a horror no one should have to experience,” said Amy Cohen, who founded the victims’ advocacy group Families for Safe Streets after her 12-year-old son, Sammy Cohen Eckstein, was killed by a speeding driver in front of their New York home more than a decade ago.

Turning tragedy into activism

Andrea Hudson, 38, the minivan driver who was killed when Jones ran a red light, was building a backyard greenhouse with her husband to help educate several kids who shuttle between homes during the school day, her father, Ted Smith, said.

Also killed in the March 2024 crash near Hudson’s home in Renton, Washington, were Boyd “Buster” Brown and Eloise Wilcoxson, both 12, and Matilda Wilcoxson, 13. Hudson’s two children were sitting on the passenger side and survived, but they spent weeks in a hospital.

“You always hear of these horrific accidents, and it’s always far away, you don’t know anybody. But all of a sudden, that’s my daughter,” Smith said. “This guy did not swerve or brake. And it was just a missile.”

Smith knew Washington state Rep. Mari Leavitt, who reached out to offer condolences and tell him she was sponsoring legislation to mandate intelligent speed assistance devices as a condition for habitual speeders to get back their suspended licenses.

Leavitt predicts it will have an even more powerful impact than revoking driving privileges, citing studies showing around three-quarters of people who lose their licenses get behind a wheel anyway.

Between 2019 and 2024, the state saw a 200% increase in drivers cited for going at least 50 mph (80 kph) over the speed limit, according to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.

“I guess I don’t understand why someone is compelled to want to drive that fast,” Leavitt said. “But if they choose to drive that fast with the speed limiter, they can’t. It’s going to stop them in their tracks.”

The measure, which Washington legislators passed last month and Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson is expected to soon sign, is called the BEAM Act, using the first letters of the names of the four victims: Buster, Eloise, Andrea and Matilda.

Because Jones, 19, didn’t receive a speeding ticket in his two previous crashes, he likely wouldn’t have been required to use the speed-limiter ahead of the fatal one. And because it could be 2029 before the law takes effect, the judge’s requirement at sentencing only applies to his time on probation after being released from prison, Smith said.

Evolution of a safety tool

Competing tech companies that joined forces to lobby for ignition interlock requirements for drunken drivers have been working in unison again the last few years to pitch intelligent speed assistance.

Brandy Nannini, chief government affairs officer at one manufacturer, Grapevine, Texas-based Smart Start, said fleet vehicles including school buses in the nation’s capital have been trying it out for years.

But it took a lot of refinement before the GPS technology could instantly recognize speed limit changes and compel vehicles with the devices installed to adjust accordingly.

“We’ve got a lot more satellites in the sky now,” said Ken Denton, a retired police officer who is the chief compliance officer at Cincinnati-based LifeSafer, part of the coalition of companies.

When court-mandated, the devices would prevent cars from exceeding speed limits or whatever threshold regulators set. An override button allows speeding in emergencies, but states can decide whether to activate it and authorities would be alerted any time the button is pushed.

A more passive version, which beeps to alert drivers when they are going too fast, is required for new cars in the European Union. California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar proposal last year, explaining vehicle safety requirements are set by the federal government and he was concerned a patchwork of state laws could stir confusion.

Parents take up the cause

Before Del. Patrick Hope agreed to sponsor the proposal in the Virginia Legislature, he tried out the device in Nannini’s car, which was calibrated to not go more than 9 mph (14 kph) over the speed limit.

“That was my first question: Is it safe?” Hope said.

Not only did he come away convinced it is, Hope is now pondering whether to install it on the cars of his three children, all of whom are new drivers.

For those mandated by a court, the price could be hefty: $4 per day and a $100 installation fee. The fee would be less for low-income offenders.

Cohen with Families for Safe Streets, which provides support services to the loved ones of crash victims, knows firsthand the kind of impact slowing down speeders can make. A year after her son was struck and killed in front of their New York apartment, another boy was injured in the same spot.

By then, the road’s speed limit had been lowered.

“That boy lived when he was hit, and mine did not,” she said. “When you are going a few miles slower, there’s more time to stop. And when you hit somebody, it’s much less likely to be deadly.”

The post US states push for speed-limiting devices on the cars of dangerous drivers appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

RIVERSIDE, CA — A man who allegedly caused a head-on collision that killed a boy and seriously injured his three siblings in Riverside while traveling over 100 mph and under the influence of marijuana was due to make his initial court appearance Monday.

Andres Laris, 23, of Riverside was arrested and booked Thursday into the Robert Presley Jail, where he’s being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Laris is charged with second-degree murder and three counts of roadway violations that resulted in great bodily injury.

He’s slated to appear before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Walter Kubelun at the Riverside Hall of Justice Monday afternoon.

Riverside police spokesman Officer Ryan Railsback said that traffic detectives this month concluded a yearlong investigation into the collision that killed 8-year-old Obed Liam Barbosa Carbajal of Riverside.

Their findings resulted in sufficient grounds to seek criminal charges, and an arrest warrant was obtained and served on the defendant at his residence on Hershey Way Thursday, according to Railsback.

Critically injured in the collision were Obed’s then-25-year-old sister, Kially Carbajal, and his two siblings, 16-year-old Mario and 10-year-old Kiara.

The latter suffered the most significant injuries — a brain impact, two broken legs and a spinal fracture. She is still recovering. Kially Carbajal suffered a broken arm and foot has since recovered.

Mario, who was seated in the front passenger seat of his sister’s car, suffered significant head trauma that required surgery. He has since recovered.

Kially Carbajal was driving her younger siblings to school on the morning of May 16, 2023.

According to police and an investigation by attorneys for the Carbajal family, Laris was driving his 2020 Honda Civic westbound on Arlington Avenue, going “more than 100 mph” when he lost control at Stover Avenue.

Railsback said he failed to negotiate a bend in the road and “veered into the opposite lanes of traffic due to his high speed” going through the intersection.

“He collided head-on into the 2015 Nissan Sentra, which was traveling east on Arlington,” the police spokesman said.

The collision resulted in the two vehicles becoming a gnarled wreck, trapping all of the parties.
Riverside Fire Department crews extricated them a short time later. Obed was pronounced dead at the scene.

Along with the victim’s siblings, Laris was seriously injured and was in the hospital for an unspecified period.

Railsback said investigators decided to pursue a murder charge based on the defendant’s prior conduct, which included two speeding convictions, one of which led to his taking an online traffic safety course that warned “speeding is dangerous because it increases the risk of a crash and decreases the time the driver has to react to avoid a collision.”

The signs of cannabis in his blood after he was hospitalized indicated he was likely under the influence, further justifying criminal charges, according to Railsback.

Laris has no documented prior felony convictions.

The Carbajal family in December announced a civil action against the city and the defendant, alleging negligence on the part of both.

The lawsuit, which is still pending, blames municipal officials, in part, for the wreck because the plaintiffs allege that the city failed to move forward with a plan established in 2015 to install a traffic light and make various other roadway safety improvements at the intersection.

According to the plaintiffs, residents of the area had repeatedly complained about the need for changes. Between 2009 and 2023, there were nearly 30 collisions, including three fatal ones, in the area of Arlington and Stover, according to the suit.

Arlington is a major travel corridor through the western half of the city, and the point of impact was at a roadway curve where speeding is not uncommon.

The post Motorist High On Marijuana And Driving Over 100 MPH Kills Boy: PD appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.