Austin Man Indicted for Causing Death of Bicyclist
The Austin American-Statesman reports that an 86-year-old man linked to the death of an Austin bicyclist last year is facing a felony charge of criminally negligent homicide with a deadly weapon after a grand jury indicted him this week.
The man was indicted for driving on the shoulder of Loop 360 and hitting 54-year-old Verter Ginestra, who later died at an Austin hospital. The indictment notes that the man, “by criminal negligence caused the death of Ginestra – and that he was criminally negligent in that he operated his car in an unsafe manner.”
This is a very big moment for safety in Austin, Texas. 99% of car-to-bike or car-to-pedestrian collisions do not result in criminal indictments and are instead handled in the civil court system (which is what the Loewy Law Firm specializes in). Adam Loewy has been calling on the Travis County District Attorney for years to start prosecuting more of these collisions as criminal matters.
Our law firm specializes in car-to-bike accidents and have seen the firsthand tragic consequences of these incidents. We hope this indictment sends a message to the Austin community to be more careful on the roads and respect the rights of bikers.