$200 Fine for Assault with a Deadly Weapon

Man nearly kills people with a car in a multi-car accident,
gets $200 fine. If it had been a gun, PRISON.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/21/152l-032100-idx.html

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SUV Driver Cited For Lane Change In Va. I-95 Crash
Man May Face $200 Fine; No Other Charges Expected
By Tom Jackman and Ann O’Hanlon
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 21, 2000; Page B01

The driver of a sport-utility vehicle was charged yesterday with making an
improper lane change before hitting the dump truck that spun out of control
and collided with two oncoming cars in the Interstate 95 accident that
killed five people Saturday morning.

The charge against James Richardson, 47, of Columbia, S.C., will be the only
one filed in the accident in the Mixing Bowl interchange with the Capital
Beltway, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said. Richardson
could be fined as much as $200 if convicted.

Caldwell said Richardson was driving a friend’s Nissan Xterra SUV in the
northbound lanes of I-95 when he clipped the dump truck driven by Eduardo
Benavidez, 35, of Triangle.

“He was changing lanes and hit the side of the truck,” Caldwell said of
Richardson.

When the Xterra, which weighs about two tons, hit Benavidez’s 13-ton Mack
truck, Benavidez “swerved and it forced him to lose control,” she said.

The truck skidded across four lanes, crashed through a guardrail and landed
in the car-pool lanes of I-95. Two southbound cars, carrying five adults and
two teenagers, had no time to stop and smashed into Benavidez’s truck,
killing all five adults.

Discussing the charge against Richardson, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney
Raymond F. Morrogh said that “under the law, you’re not supposed to make a
lane change before it is safe to do so,” even if you signal.

But he also said that “every accident that results in a death is not
necessarily a criminal case.”

“There’s no evidence of any erratic driving behavior before this, and no
evidence to suggest any aggressive driving,” Morrogh said. “In fact, there’s
some evidence to suggest he [Richardson] used his signal.”

The crash killed Scott and Janis Klurfeld, of McLean, who were heading to a
soccer game in Quantico with their 14-year-old son, Zachary, and a
14-year-old friend of his. The boys were severely injured. In the other car,
Russell and Inna Surratt, of Arlington, and their friend Jacqueline Ernst,
of Herndon, also were killed.

Yesterday, more than 800 family members and friends mourned Scott and Janis
Klurfeld in a service at their McLean synagogue, while their son remained in
serious condition at Inova Fairfax Hospital. The other boy, whose name has
not been released, was in critical condition.

A funeral for the Surratts will be Thursday in Baltimore. They will be
buried side by side.

Police said the accident was the worst on an interstate in Northern Virginia
since a bus crash in 1980 killed 11 people. Investigators do not believe
Saturday’s accident was related to construction in the Mixing Bowl, since it
occurred beyond areas that are being rebuilt.

State police have added 25 troopers to patrol the interchange, and Caldwell
said a state trooper was on the scene less than a minute after the 10:04
a.m. accident. But Benavidez was already gone, leading police initially to
believe they had a hit-and-run case on their hands.

Yesterday, more details emerged about Benavidez’s role. After his truck came
to a halt and was struck by the Klurfelds’ 1995 Saab and the Surratts’ 1988
Toyota Camry, he got out of the truck cab virtually unhurt. As other drivers
screeched to a halt and began dialing 911, police said Benavidez asked some
of the motorists to phone his employer, Owen & Sparrow. But Benavidez, an
immigrant from El Salvador, spoke no English and became frustrated.

So he then ran more than five miles from the crash site to his company’s
headquarters in Lorton to get help, said A.J. Neville, safety director for
Owen & Sparrow. “He was scared and in shock,” Neville said. “He didn’t know
what happened. He went right here to the company, and we immediately took
him back up there.”

State police initially arrested Benavidez and charged him with felony hit
and run and reckless driving. But after consulting with prosecutors, the
police released him later Saturday.

Benavidez could not be reached for comment. Neville said Benavidez has
worked for the company for six months and has 11 years’ experience driving
in the United States. He said that since the accident, Benavidez “gets a
little sick to his stomach once in a while. He’s very sad about it.”

Neville said federal motor carrier safety officials were at Owen & Sparrow
yesterday reviewing the company’s records. Caldwell said that state police
also inspected the truck and its records and that all appear to be in order.
The 1999 dump truck, on its way to pick up debris at a construction site in
Arlington when the crash occurred, had been “in very good condition,” she
said.

Investigators from both the state and Fairfax County police spent the
weekend tracking down more than a dozen motorists who witnessed the
accident, Caldwell said. “We have what we feel are excellent statements from
them,” she said, including witnesses who were behind the Xterra and the dump
truck.

Police identified the owner of the Xterra as Sandra Reardon, 48, of
Columbia, S.C.

Reardon said in an interview Sunday that she had arrived in this area Friday
and was on the way Saturday to visit a friend in Northern Virginia. She said
yesterday, “I’d rather not discuss this any further.”

Neither she nor Richardson was seriously hurt, and they were treated at
Inova Fairfax Hospital and released.

Richardson could not be reached for comment yesterday. A summons will be
mailed to him.

Joanne Surratt, Russell Surratt’s mother, doesn’t blame the other drivers
for the accident’s deadly outcome. She said overall attitudes on the road
may be at fault.

“There’s improper lane changes where you get a ticket,” Joanne Surratt said,
“then there’s improper lane changes that cause a horrific accident like
this. There should be more than a slap on the hand in this case.”

At Temple Rodef Shalom in McLean yesterday, mourners overflowed the 600-seat
building where Janis and Scott Klurfeld lay under white roses in twin pine
coffins.

Soft laughter rippled through the crowd a few times, as friends recalled
Scott’s voracious appetite for–and Janis’s sometimes indulgence of–bad
movies and nearly any music, ranging from Barbra Streisand to alternative
rock.

Mark and Adam Doyle, Janis’s sons from a previous marriage, flanked their
half sister, Mollie, 19, during the 70-minute tribute and wrote a
remembrance of their mother and stepfather, which was read to the
congregation.

Mollie’s letter to her parents left nearly everyone–including Rabbi Amy
Schwartzman, who read it–undone.

“Dear Mommy and Daddy,” she wrote. “You are the two most amazing people I
ever met. . . . I want you to know there was nothing else you could have
done to make me a better and happier person. . . . I will dedicate my life
to Zachary. . . . I love you always and forever.”

Staff writers Patricia Davis and Josh White and Metro researcher Bobbye
Pratt contributed to this report.

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