Test of driver sought in fatality

OBERLIN — State troopers say they will ask the Bureau of Motor Vehicles that the man accused of fatally injuring a well-known Oberlin bicyclist in a hit-skip accident earlier this month be retested for his driver’s license.

The request comes as part of the investigation into the Oct. 10 accident in which, police said, Ronald Dicenzo, 76, was driving a car that struck a bicycle ridden by Charles Startup, 70, an Oberlin resident, one-time Peace Corps worker and avid bicyclist.

The move to seek a retesting of Dicenzo for his driver’s license came following interviews with the man after Oberlin police found his black 2014 Ford Focus parked in front of his Cedar Street residence in Oberlin.

“Due to some of the answers he gave during interviews, we red-flagged some of them and that led to us requesting that he be retested to see if he should operate a vehicle,” according to Lt. Carlos Smith, a commander at the Elyria post of the Ohio Highway Patrol.

Smith would not elaborate.

A report on the investigation into the accident is being reviewed by Smith, who said Friday the report will be forwarded to the Lorain County Prosecutor’s Office for a decision on whether any charges will be filed against Dicenzo.

Smith said he could not say what specific charges could be filed against Dicenzo.

“We work collaboratively with the prosecutor’s office to determine that,” Smith said.

Once the request for retesting is forwarded to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the BMV is empowered by state motor vehicle laws to conduct its own investigation into such a request to determine whether submitted information provides “good cause” that a driver is “incompetent or otherwise incapable of safely operating a motor vehicle,” according to information posted at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles website.

The BMV accepts “good cause” for requests for recertification of a driver’s license from law enforcement agencies, courts, physicians, hospitals, or rehabilitation facilities.

Law enforcement agencies or courts are required to have directly observed a person’s driving or had direct contact with the driver, according to the BMV.

Once the request from the Highway Patrol is evaluated, a letter may be sent by the BMV to Dicenzo informing him that he needs to be tested again. The letter also spells out the re-testing procedures, Smith said.

“We have the ability to request that it (retesting) be done, but we do not have the authority to take his license,” Smith said. “The BMV does that have power.”

The state patrol request asked that Dicenzo be required to submit to the driving portion of the state driver’s license test, not the written portion, Smith said.

Startup was struck from behind by a car as he rode his bicycle along Butternut Ridge Road the afternoon of Oct. 10. The car slowed momentarily, according to a witness, before speeding away, the state patrol said at the time.

Startup, who worked as a licensed independent social worker, was flown to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland where he was pronounced dead a short time after the accident.

Startup and Dicenzo lived only a few hundred yards from each other in Oberlin.

An Oberlin College graduate, Startup lived in the 200 block of West College Street, around the corner from Dicenzo’s house on Cedar Street.

Startup was well-known in the area for his bicycling, according to longtime friend Gary Goodwin, a Rochester, N.Y., resident who had visited with Startup in recent years.

The two men served as Peace Corps volunteers in their 20s in remote villages in India, where they helped impoverished people improve their ability to farm land.

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