It is extremely unfortunate that Anthony Prainito failed to yield on a flashing yellow turn signal, causing him to crash into the car in which Brooks Patterson was a passenger. Assuming that neither alcohol nor drugs played a part in the negligence of the offending driver, Mr. Prainito should be responsible for the moving violations. However, it doesn't seem fair to me that the jail time he may serve is due to the serious injuries and impairments the victims incurred. They might not have been seriously injured at all if they had been wearing their seatbelts, as is mandated by the law of our state. For the record, I have always been a supporter of L. Brooks Patterson and am very fond of him. I am truly sorry that he was gravely injured in the wreck. But I ask myself, what responsibility does he have in the severity of his injuries?

Tickets should be handed out to each person who was not wearing his/her seatbelt. It's the law! Click it or ticket! And one of the drivers was a retired state police officer. Shame on all of them, they are not above the law.

I agree that the driver that hit Patterson should be held responsible but Patterson may not have been hurt as bad as he been following the law and had on his seat belt!!

With Prainito facing such serious charges, there should be no hesitation in punishing Patterson and his driver (a former state trooper) for not following Michigan Law.

Click it or Ticket.

Anyone not wearing a seat belt should be ticketed. Of course, you cannot protect people from their own stupidity. I am sorry there were serious injuries but why is Brooks still in the hosptial?? Anyone else would have been discharged days ago, told to see his own doctor and follow up with outpatient surgery. Or is Brooks just hiding out to map out his re-election strategy???

The charges against Anthony Prainito are not the end of this — the drivers and passengers could still be ticketed for not wearing seat belts. According to Michigan's seat belt law, a seat belt ticket (first offense) has a maximum fine of $25.

Doesn't anyone find it strange, dangerous and downright stupid, to have a flashing yellow light one way and a green light the opposite way? It should at least be a flashing red. Or don't I understand this correctly???

The Prosecutor prosecutes crimes, when they are presented to her office. Failure to wear a seatbelt is a civil infraction, not a crime, much like a speeding ticket. Police officers issue tickets, not the prosecutor's office.

You know that there will not be any citations issued to Mr. Patterson or his driver, don't you? It's just another one of those "professional courtesies" that come into play where powerful politicians are involved. Pity the guy driving the other car, though. Should've hit the next car through the intersection!

To clarify a little: Wasn't what was first reported was that Prainito's car was turning at the intersection and Patterson's car hit his broadside? To say he crashed into Patterson's car reads wrong to me--it was actually the other way around...if I'm wrong, please correct me. But if you look at pictures at the accident scene, Patterson's car sustained front end damage, and Prainito's was classically "t-boned" in the middle on the passenger side.

J says they are not above the law. Sorry J but this should have died awhile back in your mind with the tooth fairy. Laws are for little people, not our rulers. Look at Holder who is untouchable for Fast and Furious or Corzin of MF General who raped the account holders for billions. There are too many to list. The law is dead when it isn't a whip for the powerful.

I'm still wondering why Patterson has a driver. How much does that cost us?

A cab at night or after the hundreds of golf outings would still be a lot cheaper.

L. Brooks is above the law!

There are alot o unanswered questions. I do beleive Mr. Paterron feels he is above the law on our tax $$. As usual he get special treatment in the courts stc...it would take us months if not years to get a case in the appeals court..not Brooks. Isn't that telling??/unchecked and unbalanced.

I was hit by a hit and run driver as i sat at a red light. This person ran through the red light, hit me and kept going. She was caught by another driver 6 blocks from the hit. I was in Detroit and no EMS nor police came to the scene. Both of us had the same insurance company. Because the police failed to come, she was not cited. I
ended up in the hospital with neck, back and foot injuries. Now, 24 months later, I'm receiving a part of my salary from the State of MI. I endured surgery and was unable to walk for over 6 months. My insurance said they would not accept responsibility for my injuries and refused to give me much neede care for my back injury. I am told that my personal insurance nor Medicare will pay for auto injuries. I have secured an attorney, but after 24 months, I'm still on disability and have not been reimbursed for an accident that changed the trajectory of my life. companies for over 18 years. They were able to get away with this because of a
statement made by a "so called independent medical doctor" chosen by the insurance company. She had never seen me in her life, but spent 12 minutes with me in a so called physical, then wrote a letter to --- stating she didn't believe I sustained an injury. The insurance claims person told me they had to go by what her decision was. I have to have epidurals once a month just to be able to stand up for 3 weeks. This is the way I have been treated here in Michigan.

When Brooks Patterson is the victim, the driver gets jail. When I was hit by a car over 1 year ago as a pedestrian crossing the street in Detroit, I flew up in the air, crashed into the windshield, broke the window, rolled to the ground, was in the hospital for 3 days, was off work for 10 weeks, went through physical therapy for months, was on a walker, then a cane,then suffered a stress fracture in foot due to weak bones - that took 6 months to heal, spent the past 1.5 years in pain...only within the past few weeks can I sit without hip pain. When I followed up with the Detroit police...I learned that the driver that hit me didn't even get a ticket...because I am told, the officer that responded was not trained in accident responding and was not authorized to write tickets !!

Say that Aurburn Hills Police do not issue seatblet violation tickets to any of the 3 victims, what is the insurance take on this, or does it matter? Obviously injuries were subtained to all involved in this accident, some worse than others. Could the insurance company deny paying for all hospitalizations? Never been in that situtation do I do not know. Can any one give an opion

Brooksey is caught bouncing off curbs blind drunk and the cops give him a taxi ride home and deliver his car, this poor chump has an accident with Oakland County's overlord and it is off to the gulag for him.

Christopher: What is your point? Fact is, Patterson WAS caught driving under the influence, and cops took him and his car home for him. If Mr. Patterson was a Democrat, you'd be all over that like white on rice. But, seeing as he belongs to your favorite party....anything said is just partisan claptrap? Please.

From The Oakland Press. "Data retrieved from Patterson’s 2011 Chrysler 300 shows it was traveling at 54 miles per hour one-tenth of a second before the accident,..."

45 speed limit. Normal human response time from light or signal to brake pedal two-tenths of a second. Very high probability of more than 50 mph impact speed. They all were lucky! FYI, your car can testify against you.

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2012/08/28/news/doc503d2c161f887813634559.txt

So speeding and no seat belts. Speeding is a factor, if Cram was going the speed limit then the accident would not have occurred. Mr. Paul Walton of the Oakland County Prosecutors office is playing more corrupt political games. seriously, Mr. Walton would put the prosecutors office in a shameful position just to avoid giving a speeding ticket and properly giving Mr. Cram credit for causing the accident. Political games every which way you turn in Oakland County! Sickening!

All of you Democrats would complain if you got pulled over and ticked for 54 in a 45, especially on that stretch of Walton where the road is new and wide and most people are going 50 plus, but when a Republican does it, it's a capital crime.

I think one of the reasons for these crashes is because sometimes when you approach a blinking yellow, and you haven't been staring at the light as you approach it, your mind gets tricked into thinking that it's a yellow that's about to turn red, rather than blink yellow again.

In the past, before they had these blinking yellow arrows, I remember that a few times upon approaching a plain blinking yellow light (indicating caution) I found myself slowing down to stop. Then I would be like, "DOH! Its just a blinking yellow".

It could be that some people think that the light is about to turn red, and presume that most likely it is turning red to on-coming traffic. And in cases where a collision occurs, the oncoming car is further from the intersection, and thus it is assumed by the driver that is turning, the other car will not try to beat the red light. The outcome in this assumption would have been made worse by the fact that the on-coming car was driving at a speed reportedly 20% greater than the posted speed limit. Thus, the extra cushion of space and time the turning driver may have anticipated was not really there. Either way, the turning driver's presumption that he had the right of way was still wrong, and he would still be found at fault for that. There does come a point however that the excessive speed of an on-coming driver could be found to reasonably affect the decision sight distance, or perception reaction time of the turning driver.

TO BE CONTINUED.

If it is the case that he thought the light was on its way to turning red (i.e in a progression from green to yellow to red), I wonder if this could be considered a design flaw. Are the collisions just a statistical inevitability, in that eventually some people will see that blinking yellow at just the right time to come to the wrong conclusion of, "it was just green, and will soon be red for both him and on-coming traffic"? In addition to these collisions, how many near-misses are there that don't get counted?

Maybe the fix is just a matter of making the yellow blink faster so that people are more likely to see the blink during the time that they look at the light. Or, if these new signals weren't confusing enough already, use a new color for this blinking portion of the light.

perhaps the speed limit is not set right, I have heard it is new, wide open, " police will tell you if a % of the ppl drive x over posted, then the comparability to do so, has to be taken in consideration......... it is also based on # of drive ways etc in the area, they just raised the limit on a mile rd by me, cause ????? 40 % of the cars were safely traversing the area, with little to no issue....... now those are my words, but the criteria is the same....... you don't issue a citation on guessing what the other driver thought, he turned in front of an oncoming car, that had a green light, the fact that you know the on board computer says......... 54 mph, would be tossed out at a jury trial, based on not avail at the time, and you have a right not to incriminate your self..........

I would think the insurance company could give Patterson and his driver a hard time about paying the medical expenses seeing they broke the law by not wearing their seatbelts.