St. George Shuttle - Taxi Incident Sat Aug 19 2017
St. George Shuttle - Taxi Incident Sat Aug 19 2017
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Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2017 5:11 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Fwd[2]: Chris Gubler Apology
I want all of you to know that I appreciate you bringing to light the incident that
happened with my Taxi company. Safety and Customer service are very important to
us and it is an ongoing effort that we move towards, NEVER having another problem
like this. Thank you for being understanding people.
CJ Wade - CEO
p: 435-628-8320 / 1-800-933-8320
f: 435-628-9779
w: www.stgshuttle.com
From: [email protected]
Subject: Chris Gubler Apology
Date: August 23, 2017 at 12:12:44 PM MDT
To: [email protected]
To Whom it May Concern:
Sincerely,
Chris Gubler
=====================================
I have not heard back from you (or Ed Hill) about the 4 pm conference call we proposed via email, sent
this morning at 9:19 am. Please let us know very soon if this time will work for you.
Since writing you this morning, we received some input from a local attorney, who happened to be one
of the cyclists in our group during the Saturday morning incident.
Below, please allow me to share some of his thoughts and insights, addressed to myself, not to St.
George Taxi.
Louis Spencer-Smith
435 525 2700
===================================================
I am not sure how involved the Washington County Sherriffs Department has been in this process, but I
might suggest St. George Taxi be told that either they terminate the drivers employment or suspend
him without pay for a period, or we will file a formal report with the Sherriffs Department and request
that the Washington County Attorneys Office charge him with reckless driving, reckless endangerment,
and simple assault. We have 15-18 witnesses and we have reason to believe that the Washington
County Attorney (Brock Belnap) will support our group of cyclists. Also, there are several Deputy
Washington County Attorneys who are avid cyclists, themselves, and would understand our position.
The likelihood of the driver being charged and prosecuted is high if the issue is pushed. Depending on
his driving record, he could lose his drivers license because reckless driving alone is enough for
suspension of his license and if he is charged with aggravated reckless driving and found guilty, his
points would be enough for revocation (minimum 6 months) of his license.
St. George Taxi/Shuttle) should know that if they do nothing and we push the issue, the driver likely will
lose his license, thus making him not employable as a driver. But more importantly, if they do nothing
and driver is charged, we will let our friends in local media know. The Spectrum and St. George News
always look for good and interesting headlines. St. George Shuttle, St. George Taxi, and their ownership
do not want this type of publicity. Either St. George Taxi does something internally and we will do
nothing, or they can do nothing internally and we will do something.
====================================================
Roger Ivey, Lacy Davis, and myself plan on calling 435 628 8320 x 444 at 4 pm, this afternoon.
Louis Spencer-Smith
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Incident Report - aggressive St. George Taxi driver endangering motorist and
group of cyclists
=======================================================
Date: Saturday, August 19, 2017
Location: South-East of St. George / HWY 7 / Eastbound / between Warner Valley and Long Valley exits /
drawn-out, wide open uphill section of two-lane road
Driver: apparently around mid-to-late 30s / very short hair or shaven / approx. 5'8" tall
Vehicle: white St. George (Taxi?) passenger van (10-12 capacity), possibly older model
===========================================================================
Contacts:
===========================================================================
Thank you for taking my phone call just now and for already having identified the driver in question with
Ed Hill's input.
To respect your time, please allow me to send facts about the incident:
1) A group of approx. 20 cyclists with rear strobe lights can be seen for 1 mile or more in the dark and in
clear conditions at the above mentioned time and stretch of road. With at least one minute of advance
notice, an attentive motorist would lower speed coming up on a large group of cyclists in the dark.
Prudence would dictate a tap on the horn if one or more cyclists are out of the bike lane, which was the
case. The law would dictate a driver to stay within the traffic lane that has a double yellow line on its
left.
2) Driver chose to cross double yellow line at significant speed to pass group of cyclists. Driver
endangered oncoming traffic (apparently a white Sedan going West-bound at reasonable speed).
3) Driver then pulled into bike lane, stopped and exited St. George Taxi van - leaving driver door fully
open - and walked toward cyclists. Van with open driver door completely blocked bike lane to upcoming
group of cyclists. All cyclists had to swerve into traffic lane to avoid stopped van. Had there been traffic
going East bound immediately behind cyclist, this would have been a dangerous situation for cyclists.
5) When driving off, driver caught up with group of cyclists and aggressively skimmed cyclists riding in
bike lane. Vehicle-to-cyclist distance was considerably less than the 3-feet minimum required by law. (A
7,500 lbs vehicle, driven by an aggressive driver, trying to intimidate cyclists on 15 lbs bicycles)
=================
(Side note: During the approx. 6-hour outing to Springdale and back, our group of cyclists was passed by
approx. 300 to 400 cars and trucks. Not a single driver of those vehicles had an issue with the group.)
As I mentioned on the phone, our intent is to make the roads in and around our community safer and to
feel reassured that it is safe for our families (all cyclists in the group are parents) to use St. George
Shuttle and St. George Taxi.
Dr. Ivey and I would appreciate a conference call (between the three of us) and later a letter we can
share with the group. Please let us know a day and time / time frame for that conference call. I will be
glad to host the call.
Respectfully,
Louis Spencer-Smith
CC: Ed Hill
Roger Ivey
Lynn Otto