No criminal charges for driver who hit bicyclist

DA Serna decides against prosecuting; motorist faces misdemeanor citation

District Attorney Marco Serna will not pursue criminal charges against a motorist who struck professional cyclist Irena Ossola in a Nov. 10 crash that put the brakes on Ossola’s promising career, records released by Santa Fe police this week show.

Instead, the motorist, Hector Gonzalez, will appear before a municipal judge Friday on a misdemeanor citation for careless driving, according to the driver and a police report.

Santa Fe police Officer Richard Johnson wrote in the Nov. 28 report that he went to the District Attorney’s Office, where he said he was “advised that they would not handle the case since there are no felony or DWI charges to be filed.”

The police department faced pressure from members of the cycling community to pursue charges against the driver, who struck Ossola as she was riding her bicycle on West Alameda Street, causing injuries that required emergency responders to airlift Ossola to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, according to police. Ossola has been recovering from injuries that derailed the young cyclist’s promising career on the international racing circuit.

The New Mexican spoke with Gonzalez over the phone and in person Thursday.

Speaking in Spanish, he declined to comment, saying he did not want to discuss the matter prior to his court hearing.

A police report lists his occupation as a “stocker” and says he was born in 1945.

Although police initially couldn’t interview Ossola because of her medical condition, Johnson’s report says that on Nov. 24 he spoke with a nurse caring for Ossola, who “said she had asked the bicyclist about the crash and the bicyclist told her that she couldn’t remember.”

Gonzalez told police that the sun was blinding him and he could not see Ossola when his vehicle struck her as he was making a left turn on Quail View Lane from West Alameda around 4:15 p.m., the crash report says.

Johnson’s report says that because of that statement, and because the intersection with Quail View Lane “is on a curving slope” the elements of careless driving are present.

The city code says: “Any person who operates a vehicle in a careless, inattentive or imprudent manner, without due regard for the width, grade curves, corners, traffic, weather and road conditions and all other attendant circumstances is guilty of careless driving.”

“Any person operating a vehicle on the street shall give his full time and entire attention to the operation of the vehicle,” the code says.