On Thursday, exactly four months and 10 days since Josie Johnson died on a crisp autumn day while bicycling up Big Cottonwood Canyon, the driver suspected of hitting her from behind was charged with negligent homicide.
Elizabeth "Betsy" DeSeelhorst, 66, faces a Feb. 17 arraignment on the class A misdemeanor charge, after a lengthy investigation by the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office.
It is tragic from every angle.
And yet, the matter is moving forward. To Johnson's friends, family and thousands of cyclists who have followed this case, getting here seemed to take forever.
A long stream of e-mails and telephone calls have come my way since the Sept. 18 collision that killed Johnson.
People have built conspiracies that District Attorney David Yocom was dragging on the case because as owners of the Solitude Ski Resort, DeSeelhorst and her husband, Gary, carry political punch. In late December, Yocom laughed when I asked him about that. He told me no one gets special treatment, that the investigation was progressing, and he would not push prematurely for an outcome.
I wanted to believe that. The wait continued.
Then came the charging documents last week, which did, indeed, offer results of a thorough probe. Investigators performed a complex reconstruction of the accident and analyzed a blood test that showed no illegal substances in DeSeelhorst's system.
The prosecutors' findings appear to reinforce what people knew all along of Johnson's riding habits: She was cautious and appropriately defensive, on the last day of her life as always. She wore bright colors and a helmet. The 25-year-old University of Utah graduate student, an outdoors enthusiast who rode routinely in the canyon, was 18 inches to the right of the solid white line on the slightly curved eastbound road.
Weather did not play a part. At 4:09 p.m., when the accident occurred, the late afternoon sun was dropping in the west. DeSeelhorst, driving eastbound, would not have been squinting against the sun. The point of impact was at the center of the Jeep. No skid marks were found.
Johnson would have been "visible to motorists for a substantial distance," according to the charging documents.
This is all the people who care about Josie Johnson ever wanted or expected - a complete investigation and fair rendering of the facts. In this case, it led to a criminal charge - the first of its kind in at least a half-dozen vehicle-caused cyclist deaths in Utah since 2002. These incidents deserve a hard look.
This one got some scrutiny. Ken Johnson, associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Utah and Josie's older brother, kept pressure on the DA's office. And last Oct. 30, about 800 bicyclists rode from the U. to the the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon in memory of Josie and to raise awareness for bicycle safety. A bill to require three feet of "safe passage" between motorists and cyclists on Utah roads is before the Legislature.
Last week, Ken Johnson e-mailed members of a nascent statewide bicyclists coalition that is forming around safety issues. "This overall affair is a sad one," he wrote, "but I am happy that as we go forward something positive may come out of it. . . . Hopefully the series of events to follow [the case] will lead to improved conditions for all of us as we continue to ride our bikes. For me, this would be a great way to remember my sister."
hmullen@sltrib.com
