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Parents reveal details of student's death

August 16, 2006

On the night she was killed, MSU student Dannielle Brandt was walking back to her dorm room from the Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education, heading north across Mount Hope Road.

It was late at night, reportedly foggy, and Brandt was wearing dark clothing.

There are no crosswalks at the intersection of Mount Hope Road and Farm Lane.

The traffic light for westbound traffic turned green as Brandt crossed the road, and there was one car at the light and another approaching. The driver at the light, Thomas Michael Penfield, was in the innermost lane of the four-lane road and stopped in the middle of the intersection when he saw Brandt crossing.

Penfield later told police that Brandt was heading from the fire hydrant on the southwest corner of the intersection to the sidewalk on the northwest side. He described Brandt's pace as slow, and that she never looked toward him, even after he stopped in the intersection to let her pass.

Another driver in the outermost lane, Jordan James Shouldice, approached the green light going 45-50 mph. Not alerted by Penfield's actions, Shouldice proceeded through the intersection as Brandt came into his view.

He swerved left toward Penfield's lane to avoid the almost-traversed pedestrian.

Brandt turned and tried to run back south, but was struck on her left side.

Brandt's parents released police and investigation reports with information about the accident — which were obtained through a lawyer and private investigator — to The State News on May 30. The 69-page packet includes a 4-page letter from Ingham County's Assistant Prosecutor Linda Maloney, sketches of the accident scene, photo logs, inspection of the vehicle that struck Brandt and an autopsy report. The packet also revealed the names of the driver and witnesses, as well as a full description of the events surrounding Brandt's death.

A previous copy of the report obtained by the newspaper through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, from the Meridian Township Police Department had some of the same information — narratives, actions and identities — blacked out.

The information that was blacked out was considered private information, said Cindy Cummings, FOIA coordinator for the Meridian Township Police Department. She said private information — including that of the driver, witnesses and Brandt's parents — can be withheld under FOIA. Releasing the driver's identity, when no charges were brought against him, might be "embarrassing."

Witnesses Michael Thomas Galka and Angela Marie Tiberia saw brake lights and a body in the road as they drove on Mount Hope Road, according to police interviews. They stopped and tried to help Brandt as she lay in the road. CPR was not performed on Brandt by either Galka or Tiberia because there was blood covering her face. Meridian Township police Officer Chris Lofton and an MSU police officer performed CPR on Brandt until East Lansing medics arrived.

Shouldice passed sobriety tests, including the one-leg stand and the walk and turn, which were performed at the scene.

According to Lofton's report, the driver had a Breathalyzer result of 0.03 percent and "did not appear to be visibly impaired due to the consumption of alcoholic liquor."

According to Shouldice's driving record, included in the packet from Brandt's parents, his license was revoked in 2001 for drunken driving (with a Breathalyzer test result of 0.10), was given a restricted license in 2003 and his complete license in 2004. His license was taken away a second time after not passing a vision test during re-examination. In November 2005, Shouldice's license was reinstated, according to his record.

Preliminary results in a report from Sparrow Forensic Services said Brandt's cause of death was "multiple blunt force injuries due to motor vehicle-pedestrian collision," and the death was described as accidental.

Brandt's father, Ken Brandt, said May 26 the police investigation didn't adequately explain certain aspects of the accident.

From the report Ken Brandt gave the newspaper, the driver had been drinking, although it was below the legal limit. After Dannielle Brandt was struck, the witness pulled up behind the driver down the road to talk instead of calling 911, he said.

"These people tell me nothing was done wrong, but my daughter is dead," Ken Brandt said.

In Maloney's letter addressed to Meridian Township police Sgt. Greg Frenger, she summarized the accident based on the information her office received. She wrote in her letter that to constitute negligent homicide, it must be proven that the driver drove in a negligent manner and that it was the cause of Dannielle Brandt's death.

In her conclusion, she said no charges would be brought against the driver because "Ms. Brandt crossed against the light, moving slowly, and seemingly oblivious to traffic. ? Ms. Brandt was dressed in dark clothing and shielded from Mr. Shouldice's view until right before impact," and "Mr. Shouldice's attempt to avoid striking Ms. Brandt was compromised by Ms. Brandt's reaction of stepping back to the south."

But after Dannielle Brandt's death, MSU employees John Boyse and Thomas Baumann felt there was a more treacherous reason for the Feb. 3 traffic accident — the intersection where it happened.

"We might have avoided a death," Boyse said June 15. "(The intersection) encourages you to cross there, but it is not pedestrian-friendly at all."

Baumann and Boyse said before she was struck, Dannielle Brandt probably saw a red light for eastbound traffic and felt it was safe to proceed, not knowing westbound traffic had a green light.

"I'm convinced that on the night of the accident when she saw the red light for eastbound traffic, she thought it was the same for westbound," said Boyse, a research assistant for the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.

At the crossing of Mount Hope Road and Farm Lane, the traffic light is timed in a way that one direction of traffic, going either eastbound or westbound, receives a green light while the other remains red. North and southbound do not follow the same pattern.

Because of the amount of traffic flow, this common intersection setup is used to accommodate vehicles either turning or passing through the intersection, Managing Director of Ingham County Road Commission John Midgley said June 15.

Baumann, a physicist at the on-campus National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, and Boyse said they contacted various people on campus and in the county about their safety concerns, including MSU police Deputy Chief Mike Rice, Director of Campus Planning and Administration Jeff Kacos and Assistant Ingham County Prosecutor Linda Maloney.

Kacos said on June 15 that he never personally received complaints about the intersection — he only hears complaints that require major planning attention.

Midgley said he received inquiries after Dannielle Brandt's death, but not complaints.

Mount Hope Road and the south part of Farm Lane are owned by Ingham County, Kacos said.

MSU just acquired ownership of Farm Lane north of Mount Hope Road as part of MSU's plans to create an underpass where the train tracks are located, he said.

Part of the issue is that for crosswalks to be created, sidewalks must be built on opposite sides of the road to be connected by a crosswalk, he said.

There is only one sidewalk on the northwest corner of the intersection near the commuter lot, and there are no crosswalks.

Kacos said MSU would be responsible for the sidewalks, and then the county could put in crosswalks.

Midgley said the county and MSU met to discuss the intersection a number of months ago.

"They were going to talk to us about doing some sort of sidewalk," Midgley said. "We would put crosswalks in if there were sidewalks on both sides."

But with plans to break ground in spring 2008 for the underpass construction, any sidewalk construction done now might have to be torn out, Kacos said.

"The road commission only does roads, not sidewalks," he said. "The question is how much do we do until it's tore out again?"

Boyse said the underpass construction could take years to complete.

"I'm trying to say it won't wait that long," he said.

Boyse said he has seen many people, especially on weekends when there are football games, try to cross the road.

Visitors from out of town park at the Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education and take a shuttle to the stadium, but some are confused by the timing of traffic when they try to cross Mount Hope Road, he said.

The intersection doesn't accommodate pedestrians at all — bicyclists can't even trigger the traffic light to pass through, Boyse said.

"It's especially difficult late at night to bicycle through that intersection," he said. "That intersection won't turn green without a vehicle present."

Baumann, who used to bike through the intersection, said the traffic light is triggered by an induction loop system.

Electrical wiring under the pavement is arranged in several spread out, yet overlapping loops. An approaching vehicle, such as a car or motorcycle, disturbs the electromagnetic field created by the loops and changes the amount of inductance. The change then triggers the traffic light.

Baumann said a bike is not massive enough to effectively disrupt the electromagnetic field and trigger the light in the Mount Hope Road and Farm Lane intersection. Unless a vehicle comes along to trigger the light, bicyclists can't travel safely across, he said.

"Back in 2003, if I pushed more, maybe something would have changed," Baumann said. "It didn't happen. My feeling is if nobody says anything, nobody will do anything."

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