Photo: Reinhart’s damage
December 26, 2020 – Ventura County, Ca.
Today’s sophisticated level of vehicular accident investigation now makes it possible for law enforcement to determine the nature of events far beyond tape measurements of skid marks.
Evidence of the value of current technology in this realm was apparent with the December 24th arrest of 55-year-old Meiners Oaks resident David Reinhart on charges of hit and run driving.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Kevin Donoghue, deputies on routine patrol along Maricopa Highway 33 “noticed significant damage” to a new Protected Bike Lane Demonstration Project recently installed along the roadside.
There was major damage to “black rubber planters separating the traffic lane from the bike lane,” obviously caused by a vehicle moving at a considerable rate of speed that was no longer at the scene.
At that point the VCSD Advanced Real Time Information Center went into action, reviewing and analyzing traffic in the area prior to the time the damage to the planters was discovered. With visual records of traffic flowing past the scene, “a few vehicles”
were identified as possible culprits.
The ensuing search for those individual vehicles led deputies to “a gold Toyota Camry” parked at a local area motel. The owner of the vehicle was determined to be Reinhart.
He was promptly contacted and when confronted with the evidence, “admitted to causing the accident and driving on a suspended driver’s license.”
Reinhart was cited at the scene, charged with hit and run and driving on a suspended license.
Photos: Courtesy Ventura County Sheriff’s Department
