[Colorado-talk] Denver Post follow up article on accident

Tue Dec 28 18:30:20 UTC 2010

I have been having some difficulty with  Newsline as of late and wasn't 
able to access this through the service, so I copied and pastedtoday's 
Denver and the West article from the Denver Post below thinking you 
might be interested in what the media was saying about the Center and 
your students.  Based on the article, these two young ladies have a lot 
of pluck and I can understand why you wanted them in the center .  When 
life does nasty things to you, the hardest part is getting up again and 
moving forward, or moving at all sometimes.  Despite everything, they 
continue to press onn.  Impressive! Jim B.

 Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Driver faces charges after bus-stop crash that killed pedestrian
By Carlos Illescas
The Denver Post
Posted: 12/28/2010 01:00:00 AM MST

Carissa Ubersox knows she was extremely fortunate to be able to spend 
Christmas back home in Wisconsin after a young woman from Englewood hit 
her and two other students from the Colorado Center for the Blind at a 
bus stop.

She says she owes her life to David Nanney.

Nanney, 47, died Dec. 17 after warning Ubersox, 26, and classmate Helen 
Georgie Sydnor, 18, that a car was coming toward them.

"(Dave) told me to get behind him," Ubersox said by phone from 
Shullsburg, Wis. "He saved my life."

On Monday, the driver of the vehicle, Nina Mastroianna, 21, was issued 
a citation to appear on three misdemeanor traffic charges: careless 
driving resulting in death and two counts of careless driving resulting 
in injury. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail 
and a $1,000 fine.

Mastroianna could not be reached for comment.

Lt. Sean Dugan of the Littleton Police Department said Monday that the 
results of blood tests are pending. But given that the incident 
happened in the morning and that there were no signs of alcohol or drug 
use by Mastroianna, there is no reason to believe that alcohol or drugs 
were a factor, authorities say.

"We just don't think that is going to go anywhere," Dugan said.

Ubersox, Nanney and Sydnor were waiting for the bus near the 
intersection of West Mineral Avenue and South Utica Drive at about 7:30 
a.m., planning to go to a Christmas party at the school.

According to the police report, Mastroianna made a right turn onto 
Mineral, and her car almost immediately spun out of control because of 
the icy conditions.

Mastroianna told police that her car fishtailed and drifted to the 
middle lane. She tried to accelerate to avoid oncoming traffic and then 
overcorrected and steered the vehicle onto the curb, the police report 
said.

Nanney still had central vision and was able to see enough of the 
oncoming vehicle to warn his fellow students to get behind him.

Sydnor's pelvis was broken. Ubersox's left leg was broken and required 
surgery and pins to fix it. She also suffered two fractures to her face.

For Christmas, many members of Ubersox's family gathered at her 
grandmother's house for a celebration that had extra meaning this year.

"Christmas was very extra special," she said.

She is using a walker and has up to eight weeks of rehabilitation. But 
she plans to return to Colorado Center for the Blind to finish her 
studies.

"I need to do it for Dave," Ubersox said. "He was like a father figure 
to me. If I don't do it, he would be so disappointed."

Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas at denverpost.com

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Question please. Had the city/county sanded or put anything on the 
roads? If there was ice on the roads don't they go around and do that? 
I am not saying the driver wasn't at fault I just wanted to know if 
they had done this. As always just my opinion.

Zinka T
Joined: Jul 1
Points: 55718 Permanent link to this commentZinka T (aka ) | 9:02 AM on 
Tuesday Dec 28 | Reply to this comment
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Now that I've vented, i do want to say that the story itself is very 
uplifting. I am glad to hear that the victims are able to move on in 
their lives with such courage. My heart goes out to David Nanney's 
family, and it sounds like he a was a true hero in this situation.

trader joe
Joined: Oct 28
Points: 21743 Permanent link to this commenttrader joe (aka ) | 8:31 AM 
on Tuesday Dec 28 | Reply to this comment
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Leardriver wrote:Tough crowd!

Let's suppose that these poor victims could see, and in that 2-3 second 
time period that the car was sliding towards them, they hopped out of 
the way like anyone would do, and the only damage was a scuff on the 
car. Still want to hang her?

She had a poor driving moment. It isn't her fault that the victims had 
a condition that made them more defenseless. Should she get a ticket? 
Yes.

Nobody wants to hang her. But the absurdity that people think that she 
should get NO punishment beyond a ticket is ridiculous. It was snowy 
and icy out that morning. There was no "surprise" involved. She took 
off to fast, slid, did not know how to properly handle her car, and 
then killed someone. Do people really not get that this woman killed a 
person due to her negligence? And I'm supposed to think that the 
perpetrator is the person to feel sorry for in this case? Not hardly. 
Obviously this isn't intentional, so nobody is calling for her to be 
treated like a murderer. But how do you kill someone from your 
negligence, and not even get a felony charge or spend even a day in 
jail?

It's absurd how we just write off deaths to do driver error as "freak" 
accidents. We don't expect any kind of responsibility from drivers, and 
treat driving like a right instead of the privilege it is. This lady 
will walk with nothing more than a small fine, no jail time, and likely 
learning nothing from her actions, since so many are willing to dismiss 
this as a freak accident out of her control. If it was truly an 
unavoidable situation, she would not have been cited.

There is nothing freak about this. The roads were clearly icy and snowy 
that day. She knew that, yet chose to drive in an unsafe manner. It is 
ALWAYS the driver's responsibility to know the conditions and drive 
accordingly. No, she doesn't deserve to be locked up in jail for years, 
or even have her license permanently taken away. But certainly she 
should be facing some jail time, even if just a week or two, and have 
her license taken away for a meaningful amount of time and be required 
to take some type of driving course. Otherwise she'll never learn that 
while not intentional, this was no accident. She killed another human 
from the direct result of her negligence.

trader joe
Joined: Oct 28
Points: 21743 Permanent link to this commenttrader joe (aka ) | 8:29 AM 
on Tuesday Dec 28 | Reply to this comment
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Tough crowd!

Let's suppose that these poor victims could see, and in that 2-3 second 
time period that the car was sliding towards them, they hopped out of 
the way like anyone would do, and the only damage was a scuff on the 
car. Still want to hang her?

She had a poor driving moment. It isn't her fault that the victims had 
a condition that made them more defenseless. Should she get a ticket? 
Yes.

Cot T
Joined: Oct 17
Points: 1318 Permanent link to this commentCot T (aka ) | 7:57 AM on 
Tuesday Dec 28 | Reply to this comment
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Lizard
That whooshing sound was my point going right over your head. There are 
times when you may encounter unexpected conditions and regardless of 
how much care you take, physics wins out. I take it you have never lost 
it on ice or snow, right?

person unknown
Joined: Jan 15
Points: 11005 Permanent link to this commentperson unknown (aka ) | 
7:56 AM on Tuesday Dec 28 | Reply to this comment
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Take her license away, for good!

PS. Person unknown, get a clue. Road Condition were not good that 
morning. Everyone knew that. Either slow the hell down, or don't drive! 
Not that hard to figure out.

Lizard K
Joined: Sep 27
Points: 1493 Permanent link to this commentLizard K (aka ) | 7:07 AM on 
Tuesday Dec 28 | Reply to this comment
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Ya know, there are gonna be a bunch of folks - just plain ol' folks 
mind you - foaming at the mouth wanting life in prison or worse in this 
case.

Let me pose this - have any of you ever turned a corner and found to 
your surprise that the street was icy and that you suddenly had little 
to no control over your car? The road you were on was O.K. but wow! 
after that turn it was projectile city. Why this can even happen at 15 
or 20 mph. The car will just keep going and going and going since there 
is no friction to stop it.

These charges are an example of 20/20 hindsight. Knowing what we now 
know and all of that sort of thing. Even if you are being careful, 
driving can still be full of surprises. A fact for some to reflect on.

person unknown
Joined: Jan 15
Points: 11005 Permanent link to this commentperson unknown (aka ) | 
6:05 AM on Tuesday Dec 28 | Reply to this comment
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Ms. Mastroianna, after the rest of her sentence is complete, should be 
relegated to riding RTD for good!

Fred K
Joined: Apr 13
Points: 2049 Permanent link to this commentFred K (aka ) | 5:24 AM on 
Tuesday Dec 28 | Reply to this comment
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