> I suspect it was one of these things...
Posted on 10/06/2009 2:43:45 AM PDT by tlb
A former Cottonwood man who served 10 years on Texas death row until his murder conviction was overturned last year by an appellate court was killed Saturday in a solo truck crash in eastern Texas.
Michael Toney, a 43-year-old Redding native, was killed when his pickup, which had oversized tires, rolled while going around a curve on Farm Road 347 in the rain Saturday morning, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of Public Safety in Jacksonville said Monday.
He was thrown from the pickup and died at the scene, she said.
Toney, who had long maintained his innocence, was released early last month from Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth, Texas, after the Texas Attorney General's Office filed a motion to dismiss the murder case against him because it was not prepared to retry him.
Toney's murder conviction was overturned in December by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after it ruled that his constitutional rights were violated during his 1999 trial and that he was entitled to a new one.
The court found that the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office's lead prosecutor in the case withheld evidence from Toney's trial defense team that would have undermined the state's case against him.
(Excerpt) Read more at redding.com ...
Final Destination gets the last word.
God is the final court of Appeal I guess.
Without prejudging, it was probably cheaper than a retrial and execution and he didn’t even get to sell tickets.
Somebody who knows about tires tell me if "oversized tires" had anything to do with this crash.
I would have thought bigger tires would have made for better traction in wet conditions, if not, it wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong.
Oversized tires usually mean a lifted suspension which can cause a higher center of gravity increasing rollover risks.
The bigger tires push the center of gravity higher, making the truck more prone to roll over in a sharp turn. It was probably a big jacked-up 4x4, and those things don’t corner worth spit.
}:-)4
> I suspect it was one of these things...
Real red-neck ride. I was behind one of these at an ATM a little while ago when a guy about 5’5” with a huge cowboy hat climbed down to use the machine. I laughed and laughed as he tried to jump back into the truck.
So he was turned loose , but not necessarily because he wasnt guilty?
Technicality.
Seatbelts save lives.
In addition to the other responses, I'd add that many of those oversized tires are designed to be effective off-road, so the tread design isn't so good for paved surfaces. Add some rain to the picture and you can see that extra care is required when driving a truck so equipped.
lead prosecutor in the case withheld evidence from Toney's trial defense team that would have undermined the state's case against him.
Technicality.
Yeah. Technically, he was innocent.
Cheers!
“I would have thought bigger tires would have made for better traction in wet conditions, if not, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been wrong.”
You’re right and wrong. Oversize tires plus 4 wheel drive make for a safer ride IF, BY HAVING THEM YOU DON’T CONCLUDE THAT YOU CAN NOW SAFELY IGNORE THE LAWS OF PHYSICS and drive like a jackass in the snow or rain or mud.
When we were in Massachusetts, virtually all single-vehicle crash deaths were attributed to collision with a stone wall or a tree or utility pole near or in the edge of the pavement. I suppose that could be blamed on lousy or antiquated infrastructure design...
Now that we are back in Texas, we note that, almost invariably, fatalities here in single-vehicle accidents are attributed to being "ejected (thrown) from the vehicle". IOW, many Texas deaths are due to the stupid (and illegal) act of refusing to wear a seat belt.
Even though I have always had (and used) seat belts in my vehicles -- even when I had to buy and install them myself -- I don't particularly agree with seat belt laws that mandate their use. OTOH, folks here in the East Texas Piney Woods have a term that applies to deaths like this one: "He wuz eat plumb up with the dumb@$$!"...
Further proof that man made laws are no match for people who are “eat plumb up with the dumb@$$!”
I too always use my seat belt, of course I am a Safety Manager, but I really HATE seat belt laws.
I figure for the people on the left, this should be blasphemy! Darwinism is predominately a religion of the left, yet they refuse to allow his will to be done! Thin the gene pool I say!
Damn SUVs and their oversize tires! Just killing the convicts Americans won’t kill.
(I know he was innocent)
In addition to the higher offset in center of gravity, the wider tires increase the square inches of contact on the road and inturn decreases the PSI on the road surface and significantly decrease traction especially on wet roads.
If that were scientifically correct, why wouldn't race cars run bicycle tires instead of the really wide tires they use? Ever seen the rain tires use in F1? They ain't skinny for a reason!
Nowadays, if I even think about leaving my driveway without my belts fastened, I feel very uncomfortable -- almost naked...
He was turned loose because the prosecution cheated.
Yep - grew up in a pickup truck on back country roads (most of which were dirt) in East Texas. We didn’t wear seat belts and sat on the tailgate (I fell more than once from those things).
But, even my kids won’t let me put the car in drive unless I have a seat belt on. I get nervous driving through downtown traffic in Houston and Dallas, with a seat belt - I would be fit-to-be-tied if I drove through that area without it! I drive safely, teach defensive driving, etc...
But as I tell my daughters, I trust they will make good decisions; it’s those that she hangs out with that scare me! I can drive, it’s those around me that scare the H@LL out of me!
Narrower tires do resist hydroplaning more than wider ones, all other factors (such as tread pattern and vehicle weight) being equal. F1 rain tires are a compromise because the cars are designed with a specific dry-weather tire size in mind; the expected speeds and weight on each tire is known and this data used to specify the rain-handling tread pattern.
Remember the Goodyear "Aquatread" tires? They had a deep center groove, effectively making it like two narrower tires mounted on a single wheel. There have been other tire designs following even more extreme versions of that concept.
You’re right about the point you are making, which isn’t what i was disputing. The aquatread tires wouldn’t work better if they were half the width, though.
The post I responded to made the claim that wider tires get less traction, which is untrue. A wider tire will hydroplane, absolutely true, but a different point. The aquatread tires have the deep center groove to channel water away from the remaining contact patch to prevent hydroplaning, but reducing the contact patch will not improve traction, whereas increasing the contact patch that can make contact with the road surface will increase traction.
The guy in the story had big mudder tires, so channelling water wouldn’t really be a problem. Wider mudder tires, while they would decrease the ground pressure, would NOT decrease traction, they would improve traction.
Basically, the wider the tire (more contact area) you can have, the more traction that tire will give you, assuming you have a groove patter that channels the water in such a way as to avoid hydroplaing.
As for the F1 cars, they are limited to the width they can use, dry or wet. When they mount the rain tires, they use the maximum allowed width. If a narrower tire were to give more traction, why would they use the max width?
Thats your way of looking at it. Technically he should have been forced to have a new trial.
RIP.
“So he was turned loose , but not necessarily because he wasnt guilty?”
Or he was imprisoned despite his innocence.
“The court found that the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office’s lead prosecutor in the case withheld evidence from Toney’s trial defense team that would have undermined the state’s case against him.”
It is possible the prosecuter should have done the time.
.
If that is the case, Yes.
That hasn't been established.
Cheers!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.