Charges Urged for Distracted Driver in Jogger’s Death

California Highway Patrol officials said Tuesday they are asking prosecutors to file charges against a motorist who was reaching for a cellular phone under his seat when he fatally struck a jogger.

The CHP forwarded the case to the Orange County district attorney’s office, requesting that misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charges be filed against the driver, Brian Scott Lankford, 38, of Brea, said CHP Officer Ken Yoon.

Lankford was driving his van to work about 9 a.m. Saturday on Valencia Avenue near Lambert Road when he struck Eric Burton, a 71-year-old Brea pharmacist who was on his regular morning jog, officials said. Lankford was driving 35 mph and had veered into the bicycle lane.

Burton was taken to Placentia Linda Hospital in Brea, where he was pronounced dead at 9:38 a.m. from multiple injuries, a coroner’s spokesman said.

Lankford underwent tests and wasn’t found to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“He was just being careless,” Yoon said. “It was an accident, and it was unintentional.”

Yoon and legal experts said a driver who is eating, reading or even putting on a shoe can only be charged with a misdemeanor because there is not intent to kill another person.

“Something like murder, you have to show some level of intent, which clearly this person didn’t have,” said Jean Rosenbluth, an assistant professor at USC Law School and a former federal prosecutor.

Family members said Burton’s 38-year-old widow, Kim, drove around the neighborhood looking for her husband when he didn’t come home at the usual time. When she turned the corner near her home, she came across the accident scene but was too distraught to stop.

“She was hysterical,” said her mother, Dottie Rumph, 54, of Banning. “She knew that was the route he took every day.”

Rumph said her daughter, a manager at Mercury Insurance, intends to fight for legislation to ban cell-phone use by drivers. A recent CHP study found that cell phone use was the leading factor in driving inattentiveness.

Rumph said she was upset “at the stupidness of it” but also felt remorse for Lankford.

“If you pass someone, there’s always someone on the doggone cell phone,” she said. “He has to live with it, and I hope a lot of people learn from it.”

Lankford, who installs hardwood floors, has been divorced for eight years and has three teenage children. Court records show that he pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana in August 2001 and in August 1999. He also pleaded guilty to being under the influence of drugs in August 1999. Though this is his first accident, his license was suspended several times for failing to provide proof of insurance, according to DMV records.

Lankford went to dinner Monday night with his brother, girlfriend and mother, who consoled him after he often broke into tears talking about the incident, family members said. He was too distraught to comment Tuesday.

“He cried all night,” said his brother Robert Lankford, 41, of San Pedro.

“In my entire life, I’ve never seen him so broken up. He’s devastated.”

Robert Lankford said his brother is often on his cell phone, making calls as he’s on the road because he works 12 hours a day. He said the incident is a tragedy for both families.

“It could have happened to anybody,” Robert Lankford said. “We’re sorry it happened.”