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A jury has acquitted a former Utah Transit Authority bus driver on misdemeanor negligent driving charges for hitting and killing a well-known Salt Lake City shop owner as he crossed a downtown street
The verdict in the trial of Cheryl Anne Kidd was handed down after only about 40 minutes of deliberation in Salt Lake City's Justice Court on Friday evening.
A nervous Kidd held her defense attorney's hand during the reading of the verdict and gripped him in a tearful hug as a clerk pronounced the words, "Not guilty."
Salt Lake City prosecutors had charged the 51-year-old mother of three with one count each of negligent operation of a motor vehicle causing personal injury and failure to yield the right of way at a crosswalk, in connection with the February 2012 death of Richard Wirick.
Wirick, 82, owned the Oxford Shop shoe store at 65 W. 100 South for six decades and was so well-known in the community that some called him "Mr. Downtown."
Wirick was struck and pinned under the bus while crossing the intersection of 400 South and 200 East when the traffic signal changed on Feb. 21, 2012.
On the stand Friday, Kidd told the jury of three men and one woman that she spotted the victim too late to stop.
"I could not see that man until it was too late for me to do anything about it," Kidd said, her voice breaking with emotion. "He came out of nowhere, like somebody just beamed him down."
Kidd was fired by UTA a month after the incident.
"I loved my job and I loved serving people," she said. "When I'm behind the wheel I take people's lives seriously."
Much of the testimony in the case centered on whether Kidd's view of the crosswalk was obstructed by other vehicles, how fast she may have been driving, how long it would take for a 45-foot bus to stop and whether she could have done anything to prevent a collision.
But it was Wirick himself who could have done more to prevent the collision than Kidd, her defense attorney Robert Neeley argued throughout the three-day trial.
Witnesses said Wirick began to cross the 117-foot intersection with 16 seconds remaining on the the signal counter. That was not enough time for someone whose steps were covering just four feet each second, Neeley said. Wirick also failed to look up or turn his head to see the oncoming traffic, witnesses said.
"Mr Wirick was negligent" Neeley told the jury. "Mr. Wirick could have stopped on a dime; he's walking. Miss Kidd is driving a big 45-foot bus that weighs thousands upon thousands of pounds."
Assistant Salt Lake City Prosecutor Scott Fisher agreed Wirick was late crossing the street, but argued that at least four other people, including drivers in the two lanes next to Kidd's bus, saw the shop owner in the crosswalk. Kidd also should have had a clear view around other vehicles from her spot in the bus driver's seat, which sits some 92 inches, or more than seven feet high, and also should have noted that traffic around her was stopped, even though the traffic light had changed from red to green.
"She had multiple signs and multiple opportunities to pay attention," Fisher said in closing arguments.
Kidd, who had worked as a bus driver for about two years, told jurors she was traumatized by the accident and that despite coming back to the intersection several times, has few memories of what happened between the time the traffic light turned green and the collision.
"It's just gone," she said.
After the verdict, a thankful Kidd said her life had been changed by the accident and she keeps Wirick and his family in her prayers daily.
"Not a day has passed that I haven't thought about each of them," she said. "This was an unavoidable accident and if I could have, I would have done everything in my power to prevent it."
@jenniferdobner