SACRAMENTO -- The California Highway Patrol determined this month that a cyclist was at fault for a fatal collision in which she was struck Nov. 2 by a truck driven by Sacramento judge. But two retired supervisors of the CHP's elite accident investigation team contend that the agency's conclusion was not supported by the evidence.
The CHP said that Margaret Bengs rode her bike across Fair Oaks Boulevard in front of a pickup truck driven by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Matthew Gary as he was making a left turn onto Fair Oaks. The investigating officer found that she had violated state traffic law by attempting to cross the street in the middle of the block and not at the intersection.
After reviewing the 16-page accident report at the request of The Sacramento Bee, two accident reconstruction experts who previously headed CHP Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Teams, or MAIT, reached a different conclusion than the CHP.
"There is nothing prohibiting the bicyclist from crossing the roadway at that location," said Bob Snook, who headed the Valley Division MAIT when he retired six years ago. "The officer's opinion that the bicyclist was 'not allowed to do so' is not supported by facts or law."
Witnesses provided conflicting statements about the accident, and the CHP didn't resolve the discrepancies because the investigating officer failed to collect key physical evidence, said Snook and Bob Koetting, who headed the Northern Division MAIT when he retired from the CHP four years ago.
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"The investigation is thin," Koetting said. He added that he doesn't blame the officer but a CHP culture that favors quick investigations and prioritizes clearing of crash scenes to keep traffic moving. Snook has a similar view.
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CHP spokeswoman Officer Jenna Berry said the agency would not answer questions about the investigation or the accident report, saying the report "stands on its own."
"The CHP takes every investigation seriously and has conducted a thorough and impartial investigation of this collision," she added.
Bengs, 66, died the day after the crash. She had served as a speechwriter for former Gov. George Deukmejian and former state Attorney General Dan Lungren and was an op-ed contributor to The Sacramento Bee.
Bengs' family and bicycle advocates say the accident report has furthered their conviction that the CHP has given Gary preferential treatment because he is a judge. The agency denies claims of favoritism, but it has acknowledged errors in its reporting about Bengs' time of death and whether she was wearing a helmet. Anne Bengs Maffucci, Margaret's sister, said the family is considering legal action.
Given the high-profile nature of the Bengs case, the CHP should have brought in the MAIT to investigate, Snook and Koetting said. The eight MAIT units across California conduct in-depth investigations and use reconstruction techniques to determine accident causes.
Instead, the primary investigation was handled by the officer dispatched to the accident.
