Equal Justice for Victims Please

[XLFD]

The Mason County Press reports on June 13

"A 60-year-old Lennon, Mich. woman has been formally charged in connection to the July 14, 2017 deaths of motorcyclists Ken and Mary Ann Geurink of Branch Township. The couple died following a vehicle crash in the 5200 block of US 10, in front of Burger King.
Sebok has been charged in Mason County’s 79th District Court with two counts moving violation causing death, a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year and/or a fine of up to $2,000.00.
The crash occurred about 8:30 p.m. when Sonya Sebok, driving a Ford Explorer, apparently pulled out of the Burger King driveway into the path of an eastbound Chevrolet Cruz driven by a 20-year-old Bitely woman. During the collision, the two vehicles struck a motorcycle driven by Ken Geurink, 70; his wife, Mary Ann, 71, was a passenger on the motorcycle... [end]" 

We explored that incident here and wondered aloud whether the driver would be held accountable by a local sheriff and prosecutor combo who have ignored the rights of motorcyclists to use the county roads lawfully without having motorists turn into them or turn in front of them as they are proceeding down county roads, making a crash unavoidable.  

If we just go back to 2015, we see Sheriff Kim Cole's squad refusing to cite other drivers for sending riders to the hospital or the morgue.  The crash of Scott and Melanie Butler in July 2015 wasn't the first motorcycle accident that Cole's cops failed to enforce the laws, but it was the most telling up to that point.  The Texas driver pulled right in front of them with the reconstruction showing more than enough to illustrate why the driver was negligent.  They were never cited or charged with anything.  

Then there was the August 2016 Emerson Lake accident where the motorcyclist was critically injured when the motorist tried to turn left into a parking lot in front of them.  No citation or charges forthcoming, despite it being the same type of accident as the one that killed the Geurinks and Butlers.

In an August 2017 incident, a motorcyclist suffered unknown injuries requiring hospitalization when he was rear-ended after coming to a stop behind another motorist getting off a highway exit.  No citations.

This year has already seen a May 2018 accident leaving a critical injured motorcyclist and a June 2018 accident with unknown injuries to the hospitalized biker where the bikers were just minding the rules of the road, before having a motorist make a moving violation that wrecked their motorcycle and health.  There has been no indication that there will be any sort of citation offered to the at-fault party.  

These accidents all compare to the one that is now being prosecuted in that in each case all of the motorcyclists had their right-of-way to use the road impinged and suffered injuries to both bike and body.  The contrast, is that the other incidents involved motorists committing the moving violation hit the biker first, the Geurink incident had them being collateral damage from a two car accident where one car inadvisedly turned out in front of another car.   The only motorist getting cited or charged with a misdemeanor for killing or severely injuring a motorcyclist is one that turned in front of another car.

How messed up is that?  Have Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole and Prosecutor Paul Spaniola try to explain that to you.