WOODLAND — Running late to check his girlfriend and her family into a Davis homeless shelter for the night, Steven Hendrix tried beating the clock with speed, pushing his sport-utility vehicle up to 84 mph in a 45-mph zone on Second Street, according to testimony Tuesday in Yolo Superior Court.
As Hendrix traveled westbound, Cynthia Ann Jonasen began making a left turn from Cantrill Drive onto eastbound Second Street, headed to Target to pick up a prescription.
Steven Hendrix is on trial for killing a Davis woman in a Second Street crash. Testimony continues this week. Sue Cockrell/Enterprise photo
Going nearly twice the posted speed limit, it would have taken Hendrix anywhere from 380 to 493 feet — well beyond the length of a football field — to come to a complete stop, collision reconstruction expert Chris Kauderer said at Hendrix’s trial in connection with the Feb. 24, 2016, crash that caused Jonasen’s death.
Before that could happen, however, Hendrix’s Ford Taurus SUV slammed into the driver’s side of Jonasen’s Honda Accord at an estimated 77 mph, a speed Kauderer calculated using crash-scene measurements as well as data from the Ford’s “black box” that tracked Hendrix’s driving behavior in the seconds surrounding the impact.
It was the allegedly reckless nature of Hendrix’s driving that prompted Yolo County prosecutors to charge him with second-degree murder under the implied-malice theory — that he likely knew his actions were dangerous to human life, yet acted with conscious disregard to that fact.
Last week, one of the four children who had been riding in the Ford testified she had asked Hendrix to slow down as he passed two other cars just before the crash, and he responded by shrugging his shoulders.
Hendrix, 33, also is charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence causing injury and four counts of child endangerment.
Witnesses to the 5:15 p.m. collision reported seeing an “explosion” of fluid and debris as the Ford broadsided the Honda in the middle of the road. The vehicles then veered apart, their mangled frames coming to rest on opposite sides of the street.
Jonasen, 71, died at the scene, while Hendrix and his six passengers escaped with minor injuries.
Three-dimensional laser imaging of the damaged vehicles showed the force of the collision crushed the left side of Jonasen’s car inward about 34 inches, “which was approximately half the width of the vehicle,” Nick Salinas, a forensic engineer who works for Kauderer, testified Monday.
To determine the vehicles’ speeds at impact, Kauderer relied upon “EDCRASH,” a physics-based computer program that calculates speed based on the vehicles’ weight and other specifications, along with their positions at the points of impact and rest.
The program came up with an average impact speed of 79 mph for the Ford and about 10 mph for the Honda, which accelerated an additional 45 mph “from the energy transfer of being struck by the Ford,” Kauderer testified.
Data downloaded from the Ford’s restraint control module, or “black box,” yielded similar results, he added, showing Hendrix reaching a maximum speed of 84 mph several seconds before the crash and slowing to 80 mph one second before impact.
If he continued to slow at the same rate, Hendrix would have struck Jonasen’s car at roughly 76 mph, Kauderer said.
The black-box data also indicated that Hendrix activated the brake switch a second before impact, though “the brakes were never applied firmly enough to the point where the anti-lock brake system kicked in,” Kauderer told the jury.
He also noted that the distance it would have taken for Hendrix to stop the vehicle is based upon an average perception reaction time of 1.5 seconds — a figure that Hendrix’s defense attorneys challenged during their cross-examination.
Deputy District Attorney Steve Betz cited studies performed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials that assume an average perception reaction time of 2.5 seconds. Kauderer, however, said that figure is used for the purpose of designing highways.
“That is not the average perception reaction time of people involved in hazardous situations,” Kauderer said, though he acknowledged that reaction times can vary widely based on the scenario, time of day and driver impairment, among other factors.
Prosecutors allege that Hendrix was under the influence of marijuana and methamphetamine when the fatal collision occurred. His attorneys admit the drugs were present in his bloodstream but say he smoked marijuana five hours before the crash and ingested no meth that day, attributing signs of impairment he displayed at the scene to the disorienting injuries he sustained in the crash.
The trial resumes Wednesday afternoon in Judge Paul Richardson’s courtroom.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
