You Could Be the Next Person Killed on the Pell Bridge

You Could Be the Next Person Killed

on the Pell Bridge

A Report on the October 21, 2011 Fatal Crash

By H. David Prior

Nearly two years ago, two people were killed on the Pell Bridge. Their deaths could

have been prevented. A reckless driver killed them. Certain public officials sworn to protect

us swept the case under the rug. They trivialized the victims’ deaths and excused the

reckless driving. They need to be held accountable for their misbehavior and their failure

to protect us. The truth needs to be revealed. That is why I have written this report for the

citizens of Jamestown and ask for your help.

My brother Kenny was afraid to cross the Pell Bridge on his way to work and back. He

frequently told me the bridge was “scary”, people drove too fast on it and there was no

escape from “crazy” drivers. Unfortunately, Kenny was right. On the night of October

21, 2011, Kenny was on his way home to Jamestown from his job at the Navy base. He

and his friend and co-worker Kathy Meunier, who was driving him home, were hit headon

by James MacKenzie, a teenage driver from Middletown. MacKenzie was returning

home from a football game around 10:20 pm with his twin brother Chris. Kathy Meunier

was killed instantly. Kenny was critically injured. The first responders and doctors made

heroic efforts to save him. He was transferred by helicopter to Rhode Island Hospital in

Providence where he died a few hours later. The MacKenzie twins were also badly injured,

but they survived the crash and graduated from Bishop Hendricken High School in June

2012. Two active cell phones belonging to the two boys, containing numerous text messages,

were taken from the front seat of their car by the Rhode Island State Police the night

of the crash. The phones were still buzzing and ringing when the RISP seized them.

After the horrific crash which killed my brother and his

friend, we contacted the Rhode Island authorities asking for

an explanation and a copy of the official accident report. We

talked to several eyewitnesses to the crash and conducted our

own investigation with the help of our lawyer John Murphy

of Jamestown. Several months later we finally met with Jay

Sullivan of the Attorney General’s office in Providence. We

were shown a video of the crash and were told that the Rhode

Island State Police and the Attorney General’s Office were

still investigating. Sullivan promised to provide us with a full

accident report on the crash.

After months of delay and stonewalling, the Attorney General decided not to bring criminal

charges for reckless driving despite all the evidence to the contrary. The driver eventually

pled guilty to traffic violations of speeding and driving on the wrong side of the bridge

in late March of 2011. He was fined $385 for driving over 63 mph in a posted 40 mph zone

and his license was suspended for 6 months. Immediately after the driver pled guilty, the

Attorney General’s office reneged on its agreement to provide

us with the full accident report, including the evidence of cell

phone use and texting. We were forced to go to court several

times last year to obtain two separate court orders requiring

the Attorney General and the State Police to produce the evidence

we were promised and entitled to by law.

Based upon both eyewitness accounts and the evidence we

now have, here is what we know: We know James MacKenzie

was traveling in excess of 63 mph. That is what the video

shows and that is what he pled guilty to before a RI Traffic

Tribunal judge in a pre-arranged plea worked out by his lawyer

and the prosecutor Jay Sullivan. We know that both the driver and his twin brother had

active cell phones in their car. It is illegal for a teen under the age of 18 to use a cell phone

in a car while driving. It is also illegal in Rhode Island and in most states to text while

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driving. We know based upon the police report that the boys both used each other’s phone

interchangeably and there was texting going on during their ride home before the crash. In

fact, texts continued to be sent to the boys after the crash. We know that drugs and alcohol

and vehicle malfunction were ruled out by the RISP. The video taken from the tower of

the bridge shows that the driver drove his car straight across a double yellow line and two

lanes of opposing traffic, far in excess of the speed limit, without slowing or stopping. He

never swerved or even applied his brakes. He drove head on into Kathy Meunier’s car and

completely demolished it, killing two innocent people. Kathy Meunier was driving her

car lawfully in the far right lane, within the speed limit. She and my brother were simply

returning home from work that night. The same thing could happen to you, your brother,

son, wife or mother, the next time any one of you crosses the Pell Bridge.

Kenny’s survivors included his elderly mother with whom he lived his entire life and his

twin sister Kathy and me. Kenny was 65. He was handicapped and had special needs. He

never drove a car. Kathy Meunier was doing a good deed by driving him home after work

as she had many times before. Kathy Meunier’s survivors included her husband Richard

and her seven year old daughter Honor. Their loss is tremendous. Kathy was the love of

Richard’s life and Honor has lost her mother and will never know her. Kathy was only 48.

She was a special person who was a decorated National Guard veteran. She was going to

school, working several jobs and volunteering to help others less fortunate when she was

killed. She was buried with full military honors in the Rhode Island Veteran’s Cemetery.

Both Kenny and Kathy are missed tremendously by their families every single day.

The Pell Bridge was completed and opened in June 1969. It was built without a median

barrier to protect its patrons who pay RITBA’s tolls to cross Narragansett Bay. It replaced

the Jamestown Ferry and became the only practical way to travel east from Jamestown. It

was built years before strong lightweight materials were available to make the median barriers

that are prevalent and used to protect people crossing bridges today. It was opened

when far fewer cars crossed the bridge every day. It was built before cell phones were invented

and texting while driving became the serious danger and curse it has become today.

It was built before the Age of Distracted Driving when Texts Can’t Wait and law enforcement

selectively enforces the ban on using cellphones and texting while driving.

Bridges connect places and people. The Pell Bridge connects Jamestown and Newport.

Ironically, the social service agency which helped my family take care of Kenny is called

Bridges. Bridges, a nonprofit corporation, was founded by Lisa and Jim Rafferty of Jamestown

over 25 years ago to take care of handicapped people with special needs.

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My brother Kenny had special needs, but he also had special gifts. He worked for 37

years at the Navy base. He was an avid and accomplished woodworker despite his handicap.

He made wooden birdhouses, planters, toys and crafts that reside in the homes of his

many friends in Jamestown and elsewhere. Kenny feared being driven over the bridge, but

he had good reason. He knew the bridge was not safe. He had compassion and empathy

for those who drove to work and back with him and he worried about his safety and his

future. He worried every day about what would happen to him and to us. I believe that he

had a premonition about the bridge because he knew better than we did that the bridge was

unsafe.

Kenny said to me shortly before he was killed, “Bridges wants me to be a role model.

How can I be a role model?” His social workers at Bridges in Jamestown were probably

thinking about how Kenny could teach their other handicapped clients woodworking. I

think Kenny and Kathy Meunier can be another kind of role model now. Kenny and Kathy

can and should be a catalyst for safety on the bridge. Their unfortunate deaths are a lesson

for all of us. Their deaths should not be in vain. We need to demand that the Rhode Island

Turnpike and Bridge Authority install a median barrier on the Pell Bridge now. Buddy

Croft, the Executive Director of RITBA, was quoted by the Jamestown Press in August of

2012 as saying “One death on the roadway is too many.” What does RITBA consider two

deaths to be? It is time for RITBA to act now.

RITBA has been aware of the cross-over crashes and need for a barrier for decades

and they have done nothing. RITBA’s own records show that there have been numerous

collisions on the bridge. In fact, there have been 49 crossover crashes since 1996. There

have also been numerous “side swipes” or near misses. RITBA is clearly aware that the

volume of traffic on the bridge has increased dramatically since the bridge opened. They

have used historic traffic volume and projected increases in the traffic to sell bonds to their

investors in public offerings. RITBA is also aware of the high rate of speed people travel

over the bridge, the woeful lack of enforcement of the 40 mph speed limit on the bridge

and the selective enforcement of the ban on texting while driving. The mounted cameras

on the bridge show clear evidence of this law enforcement failure. RITBA also knows the

bridge would be safer and more stable in high winds, including hurricane-force winds, with

a median barrier. Their own engineering experts, Parsons Brinckerhoff, told them so after

doing a study in 2009.

Sadly, RITBA has not made your safety in crossing the bridge a priority. RITBA has

had a median barrier in its capital budget and 10 year renewal and replacement plan for

years. In fact, it cites the number of cross-over crashes as the need for a median barrier.

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RITBA has paid for engineering studies which confirm the need and demonstrate that the

bridge would actually be safer and more structurally sound. RITBA has estimated the total

cost of a median barrier at about $6 million. It is still in their plans, they know it is needed

and they have not installed it despite the cross-over history putting their patrons at risk.

A time line of RITBA’s delay in acting is informative. In October 2006, RITBA hosted

the fall conference of the International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association in Newport.

Besides a tour of the Pell Bridge by boat and a clam bake, the conference featured

a program on barrier systems for bridges and the new barrier technology recommended

by the National Transportation Safety Board. In August 2007, RITBA announced it was

studying median barriers for the bridge and designs and bids for the barriers would be

due soon. This was reported on the front page of the Jamestown Press under the headline

“Bridge authority looking to separate highway lanes with median barriers.” In February

2009, NBC 10 reported on a nine car crash on the bridge. Buddy Croft was quoted as saying

he wanted to know if something could have been done to prevent the accident. In June

2009, WPRI reported that two people were recovering from serious injuries after a head-on

crash on the bridge.

RITBA continued to study putting a barrier on the bridge. They applied in 2009 for

a federal TIGER grant to install a barrier. The application made a case for public safety.

Presumably, it included the long history of cross-over crashes which preceded Kathy and

Kenny’s deaths. In 2010, RITBA did a bond issue for capital improvements. The offering

document for the bonds disclosed that RITBA intended to install a median barrier and had

applied for a TIGER grant. It represented that if the TIGER grant was not awarded, RITBA

would fund the barrier as soon as funds were available. RITBA did not get a TIGER grant

and did not apply for one later. By then, RITBA had decided to build a new office building.

Public safety took a back seat to their own comfort and personal needs.

In 2010, RITBA hired an architect to renovate its existing office building. In March

2011, the Jamestown Press reported that RITBA had voted to proceed with plans for a

new office building which would be, in the words of RITBA’s Chairman David Darlington,

“safer and more comfortable for the employees and toll payers who work and visit

the building.” On October 21, 2011, when my brother and Kathy Meunier were killed on

the bridge, RITBA was still studying the need for a barrier and had a barrier in its plans.

RITBA’s new office building was underway. Instead of installing the barrier, RITBA had a

beautiful new office building and luxurious new board room designed and built for its own

comfort and safety.

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On August 1, 2012, my family, represented by our lawyer John Murphy of Jamestown,

met with the RITBA board and staff. We had the full support of Richard Meunier and his

family in the request we presented to the RITBA board. RITBA was meeting for the very

first time that day in its new building. We asked RITBA to install a median barrier on the

bridge. We said that the crash that killed Kathy and Kenny could have happened to anyone

crossing the bridge at any time and a barrier may have saved their lives. The Jamestown

Press and Newport Daily News both covered this presentation and reported on the meeting

and our request. Well over a year has passed since then. No barrier has been installed and

we have had no encouragement from RITBA that one will be anytime soon.

We believe a barrier could have saved Kathy and Kenny’s lives. We think a barrier

could save your life the next time you cross the bridge.

When we met with Jay Sullivan, the Assistant Attorney General and prosecutor assigned

to the MacKenzie case, he said two things to us that were deeply disturbing.

First, by way of excusing the teen’s reckless driving, Sullivan said “Everybody speeds

on the bridge.”

Kathy Meunier was not speeding. Careful and lawful drivers do not speed over the

bridge.

If most drivers do speed on that narrow, four lane bridge separated only by a double yellow

line, and they are not fined, that is a serious law enforcement problem.

Second, by way of minimizing evidence of cell phone use and texting while driving,

Sullivan said “I haven’t looked at the cell phones or texts. They may have been deleted or

tampered with.” This was said months after the crash and belies the Attorney General’s

statement to Joe Baker of the Newport Daily News in March 2012 that he was taking his

time because he was doing a careful job. The phones had been in the possession of the

RISP since the night of the crash. Sullivan refused to let us see the texts or permit us to

have the phones inspected for months and months despite two court orders. He vowed we

would never see what was on the phones. We finally got access to them after months of

further excuses and stalling in March of 2013.

According to the National Highway Safety Administration, driving a car while texting is

six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. Sending or receiving or looking

at a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds - when traveling at

55 mph – it is like driving the length of an entire football field while blindfolded.

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Texting in cars and trucks causes over 3,000 deaths and 330,000 injuries a year according

to a Harvard Center for Risk Analysis study.

Texting while driving now has replaced drinking while driving as the leading cause of

accidents and deaths of teenage drivers and texting drivers are 23 times more likely to be

involved in a crash than non-texting drivers.

The Rhode Island ban on texting while driving has been the law since 2009. Sadly, the

law is not being enforced. A Providence newspaper reported in February 2013 that Rhode

Island’s law against texting while driving is proving wholly ineffective despite the fact

that distracted driving and texting is now one of the greatest dangers facing drivers on our

roads. In fact, only a mere handful of texting drivers have been ticketed and fined in Rhode

Island.

So who will protect you when you cross the bridge again? You may be a safe driver, but

you are not in control. You are at the mercy of the other driver who is speeding and texting

while driving with impunity. A reckless driver can kill two people in Rhode Island and get

away with it. The double yellow line on the bridge will not save you and lax and selective

state law enforcement will not protect you.

If you cross other bridges in your travels, you will see many variations of strong, lightweight

median barriers throughout the United States. Barriers are now made of modern

materials and can be installed at a reasonable cost to save lives. In San Francisco a few

years ago, there was a serious problem with head-on collisions on the iconic Golden Gate

Bridge. Law enforcement had failed to adequately enforce the speed limit on the Golden

Gate and no barriers protected drivers who were being killed with increased frequency.

The citizens of the Bay area finally organized a campaign called Citizens for a Safe Golden

Gate Bridge to change things. They got the speed limit on the Golden Gate lowered and

strictly enforced and they demanded that barriers be installed to protect people using the

bridge. And what happened? The laws are now enforced rigorously, movable lightweight

barriers are being installed and fatalities on the Golden Gate have dropped dramatically.

So what can each of you do to save lives on the Pell Bridge? You can and should do

several things:

Demand that RITBA, the RISP and the Attorney General rigorously enforce the speed

limit on the bridge. It is not that hard. With today’s technology, a transponder can track

the speed of every car crossing the bridge. Anyone speeding can be ticketed and fined just

like toll evaders can. RITBA has the technology to do this.

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Demand that RITBA, the RISP and the Attorney General rigorously enforce the laws

banning texting while driving. The public relations campaign to “Stop the Texts, Stop the

Wrecks” needs to be more than simply lip service.

Demand that RITBA stop stalling and install a median barrier on the bridge. Now!

Please consider joining in a campaign against distracted driving, and make sure your

loved ones understand the terrible harm that a distracted driver can cause.

You can make a difference by writing to RITBA and the others responsible for our

safety and making your voice heard.

You can start by writing to David Darlington, the Chairman of RITBA, and Buddy

Croft, the Executive Director, at One East Shore Road, Jamestown, Rhode Island 02835.

Better yet, email them immediately at ddarlington@ritba.org and buddy@ritba.org. Please

do not delay. Do it today. The life you save could be your own.

The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the author, and not of The Jamestown Press or its publisher.