Update: Billy Nichols' Case

The civil case in Ocala, Fla. involving Billy Nichols, a well known business owner in Ocala, is back in court this week for hearings on several motions.   (more...)

Nichols was charged with DUI Manslaughter in 2007. His defense attorney argued that Nichols' gastroparesis was responsible for an inaccurate BAC test result after the accident. Nichols was acquitted on both counts.

The civil suit was filed by Adrian Cummings, whose wife, Nancy, and daughter, Holly, were victims of the collision. One of Cummings' lawyer's motions relates to accessing Nichols' medical records. In September, 2008 Nichols was ordered by the court to see a specialist at the University of Florida (Shands) for his condition.

Original Post - Gastroparesis Defense Against DUI

A Week in Pictures

Whitewalls on a Navigator?
A closer look indicates the driver needs to work on curbside parking.



I'm not making this up. Three of these decorations were for sale at a local store...each with the same spelling mistake.




Are Jake and Elwood in town?




Building Technology - Workers use large rocks to hold concrete in place in Cleveland.

Recent photos of those plants previously described as

nearly-dead	and dead
No flowers in the grass now	These purple flowers were transplanted from Sandra's garden

Read about the Recent Cleveland Trip

Tags: [Whitewall Tires] [The Blues Brothers]
[Construction at The Cleveland Clinic]
[Gardening]

Gastroparesis Defense Against DUI

In 2004, William Nichols Jr. of Ocala, Florida, was charged with 2 counts each of DUI-manslaughter and vehicular manslaughter. He lost control of his truck and crashed into a Tempo being driven by Holly Cummings. Holly's mother, Nancy, was a passenger in the car. Both were killed in the crash.

Jury selection and opening statements in his trial were conducted last week.

Nichols' blood alcohol content was found to be 0.103 and 0.104, two-and one-half hours after the crash. The legal limit is 0.08. "The defense is not disputing the alcohol results at trial. Instead, they plan to offer a medical explanation about the high alcohol content. The defense says Nichols may have had a gastroesophageal condition which caused the alcohol to sit in his stomach and not metabolize."
The 7-person defense team, led by William DeCarlis, will argue that Nichols suffers from gastroparesis; slow gastric emptying caused him to have alcohol in his system more than 6 hours after he'd consumed the alcohol.

If Nichols had been charged based on a Breathalyzer^™ test, it's reasonable that the BrAC was influenced by alcohol remaining undigested in his stomach. Diffusion rates, the rate at which liquid is absorbed into the blood through the stomach membrane wall, are usually slower in people with gastroparesis. Gastroparesis creates reflux, which might increase the alcohol eliminated in Nichols' breath.

But, Nichols was not arrested at the scene or even administered a Breathalyzer. He was picked up later, after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had the BAC results from samples of Nichols' blood. The specimen was collected more than 2 hours after the accident (over 8 hours since he'd had his last drink).

It is estimated that from 0.5% - 2% of ingested alcohol is not metabolized and enters the bloodstream through diffusion. "Alcohol is removed from the bloodstream by a combination of metabolism, excretion, and evaporation." Alcohol is slow to metabolize. Ninety to 98% of alcohol is metabolized (removed from the blood) by the liver.

Questions:
- How does his claim that the alcohol was retained in his stomach because of gastroparesis account for alcohol being found in his blood?
- Does it make a difference how that level of alcohol got into his blood (i.e., via diffusion or normal digestion)?
- Is he claiming that he's not responsible for his impairment, but his disease is?
- Is it OK to drive with BAC over the legal limit, because you have a disease? Alcoholism is also a disease, but is it a defense against DUI charges?

Nichols faces up to 15 years in prison on each charge, if convicted.

A Patient Story: Living with Gastroparesis

Tags: [Billy Nichols]  [Ocala]  [William DeCarlis]
[Gastroparesis]  [DUI]  [Breathalyzer]
[Alcohol - Digestion & Metabolism]

Recall by Lexus Will Affect 55,000 Units

Lexus issued its 86th safety recall yesterday. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issues recalls when an investigation concludes that "an auto manufacturer is found to be responsible for a serious safety or mechanical defect".

In the Lexus situation, incidents of accidental acceleration related to the Lexus ES350, Toyota RAV4 and Tacoma truck were reported to the agency in August.

"One driver told the agency the vehicle had hit speeds of 100 m.p.h. over a 6-mile stretch of freeway due to the problem. A Michigan woman said the problem caused her to lose control of her Lexus, triggering a rollover crash on I-75 that totaled her car."

Lexus will replace 55,000 floor mats that, when not properly installed, allow the mat to crowd under the gas pedal, interfering with the safe operation of the accelerator.

Owners of the Prius and Avalon are being asked to check the installation of their floor mats as a precaution.

This isn't about floor mats.
Part of the story is that since 1990, Lexus has issued just 85 recall notices to vehicle owners. That's across its entire line up of vehicles.
Over the same time period, Ford^* announced 1721 recalls; General Motors announced 1142⁺ recalls of its light truck and van lines; and Chrysler recalled the Sebring model alone 72 times since it was introduced in the 1995 model year!

Over 12 years, the Sebring has been recalled almost as many times as the complete product mix of Lexus over the past 17 years! And the Sebring is described by Canadian Driver with the following phrases: "high value", "solid performance", "consistent Chrysler quality".

The floor mat example demonstrates that it needn't require great expense or considerable time to return a vehicle to NHTSA safety standards.
But isn't it just a little embarassing that the #1 luxury car brand issued a recall involving a $25 rubber mat?

^* Refers to Ford branded models only. Does not include Mercury or Lincoln.
⁺ Applies to GMC light-duty trucks, vans, minivans.

Tags:   [Lexus]   [Toyota]
[Automotive Recalls]   [Accidental Acceleration]
[Runaway Audi Scandal]   [Detroit Three]
[Weiss Research]   [Automotive Recall Scoreboard]   [Floor Mats]

Further Reading on North American automotive market:
The Demise of the American Auto Industry and the Rise of Toyota
(Martin Weiss, Money and Markets, March 2007)

If the accelerator is stuck: Hook your toes under the pedal to free it up.
If that doesn't work, downshift into lowest gear (some pros say neutral) and apply the brakes.
Pull off the road once vehicle has slowed.

Jeeper Creeper

We're selling the Concorde in The Auto Trader. The last time I sold a car in The Auto Trader, it sold in 12 hours. That time, the ad was posted at midnight and I had cash from the buyer by noon. That car was a beater. This one's not.

I almost had the car sold before the ad was even posted. Once the ad was on the site and in the 'zine, the phone calls began. One call in particular creeped me out. I answered his questions about the vehicle and asked when he wanted to see it.
"Is the car at your home, at..." he stated my address.

I hadn't given him my address. I paused. He said that he had done a Reverse Look Up on my phone number and that's how he knew my address. He also had directions to the house, courtesy of Mapquest. For all I know, he was already looking at the car using the internet and Google Maps - Satellite. OK, you can't see the driveway on the satellite shot, but it's creepy.

Reverse Look Up gets its information from the telephone directory. As long as our phone number is published in the local book, our number is available to be Reversely-Looked-Up. Even if we requested an unlisted number, our number would still be available on the Reverse site. It's only if we change our status to unpublished that we could be excluded from their database, sometime in the next 3-6 months.

I did a Reverse Look Up on our telephone number, which is silly, because I know where I live. Then I clicked on the 'Find Your Neighbors' option, which, is also silly, because I already know our neighbors. The displayed results did not include our neighbors. It listed people who live on our street, but not the families who are really our neighbors. Which is odder, considering neither of our neighbors has an unpublished telephone number.

Imagine if I chose one of my new-found neighbors and knocked on his front door, (or maybe I should go to the side door? We're neighbors, after all.) and asked him to water our plants while we're away. Then I could explain that I found out he was my neighbor from Reverse Look Up on the internet. Then he could go to his computer and do a reverse look up and find some of his neighbors...

It's like that one Auto-Creeper set in motion a new version of Pay it Forward.

This version encourages Random Acts of Oddness, instead.

A neighbor is someone who can get to your house in less than a minute, and takes 2 hours to get back home. - O. A. Battista


[Reverse Lookup]   [Creepy]   
[Used Cars]   [Pay It Forward]

Espadrilles Don't Pertain to the Automobile

es-pa-drille [es-puh-dril]
- noun
Def: 1. a flat shoe with a cloth upper, a rope sole, and sometimes lacing that ties around the ankle.
2. a casual shoe, often with a wedge heel instead of a flat sole.
[Origin: 1860–65; Pr espardilho, dim. of espart]

(from Dictionary.com)

espadrille fraîche [es-puh-dril fray-sh]
- descriptive noun
Def: 1. a really cool casual shoe, often with a wedge heel and rope sole

espadrille fraîche pour ma maman
- phrase
Def: 1. a really cool shoe for my Mom

I knew all along it wasn't a car... and I found these on my own, without the dictionary or Wikipedia.

Technically, esparto is of Spanish origin. In which case, cool espadrilles would be espadrille fresco. That has a better ring to it. The style is widely agreed to hail from the south of France, so this post remains true to its material roots.

Espadrilles (Wikipedia) [Articles about Espadrilles]

I'm Not Hercules

Monday 1:30 p.m. at an intersection. This particular intersection has a total of 7 left turn lanes, 8 lanes for thru-traffic, plus each direction has a right turn lane. It is a major intersection.

I was the first car in an outside left turn lane and my light was red. There was a car in the middle of the intersection. The car wasn't moving and was positioned in such a way that traffic could not pass. Right turns could be made and one southbound lane was passing.

Horns started. I rolled down the window and heard the driver trying to start the engine. I got out of my car, approached the stranded driver and asked what the problem was.
"I ran out of gas. I called the Auto Club," the older man said. By older, I mean older than my parents (who are still young).

"Well, we gotta get you out of the intersection. We'll have to push you out of the way." I said.
I was far enough from the car that we had to raise our voices. And there were lots of cars around. Many drivers had windows open on their vehicles.

Again, louder, I said, "We'll have to push the car out of the way." I waved to a couple drivers to encourage them to help. One was on the phone; another had to adjust something on the dash. All the while, more cars lined up and waited for the man's Oldsmobile to get out of the way.

Now, I'm no Hercules. I'm not Goliath. I'm not feeble, but I know that I do not look like I can single-handedly move this man's car across 3 lanes of roadway. I could not interest anyone in helping. Finally, four cars behind mine, a door opened. The driver got out and came to help.

We did it. Me and this other guy. While the others watched. Once the Olds was out of the way, we shook hands and went back to our own vehicles.

I do not understand how any of those other drivers could watch this situation, assess it and then make a conscious effort to not help. Sad, isn't it?

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