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Seeking traffic justice across the country
Bicycling is such a positive activity with so many benefits that we really don’t want to do anything to discourage people from riding. Bicycling is safely enjoyed by tens of millions of people riding literally billions of miles in this country every year – deriving benefits and pleasure we can’t even begin to calculate. Yet the activity is not without risk and periodically we have to face that awful reality. Another fatal bike crash in the Tampa area last week brings the total there to seven in just a couple of months – and bringing stark relief to the desperate need for the bike safety program that was initiated after the sixth needless death.
What raises the ire of cyclists even beyond anger and frustration at this annual toll is the disdainful reaction of the criminal justice system – and the drivers it so blithely lets off the hook. Cycling channels are rightly a-buzz right now with the Vail, Colorado case: driver hits cyclist, leaves them for dead, drives through town to get their car fixed, and is charged with two misdemeanor offenses because felony charges would affect his job. Well, guess what, the physician that he hit has had his job pretty badly affected as well.
In addition to the Tampa cases and the one in Vail, we’re following incidents in Maryland (hit and run fatality where the driver drove for miles with the victim’s bike underneath the car) and South Carolina (“distracted” driver hits group of 15 riders) where clearly dangerous behavior that results in death or serious injury is simply not being taken seriously. I could have picked almost any two week period in which to make that statement – and yet it’s really hard to know what to do in response.
In the case in Vail, there’s a petition doing the rounds to get felony charges brought against the driver. In other cases, family members and local advocacy groups are doing what they can to comfort and advise family and friends, and to try and ensure some level of justice is done to prevent these crashes from happening to others. But that clearly isn’t enough.
• We need every state to have a law on the books that makes it possible to charge drivers who hit cyclists – or anyone else, for that matter – with something serious: so now is the time to support your state advocacy group and get that done in the next legislative session.
• We need traffic safety money to be spent on meaningful campaigns to educate motorists, cyclists and law enforcement agencies on safe behavior, and for safety construction funds to be spent on something other than turning lanes, tree-clearing, rumble strips, and signal timing that encourages even greater speed and carelessness.
We will be following these cases closely and trying to help where we can. We are also continuing the steps necessary to establish a meaningful legal defense program to assist in cases like these – and in the less dramatic but more frequent examples of injustice that cyclists face every day. Like the woman who wrote today to complain about getting a $200 ticket for riding into the side of a taxi that turned left across her path…
Really, riding a bike is a GOOD thing – let’s try and keep it that way.
Andy Clarke
League President
Andy Clarke was appointed to the position of Executive Director in April of 2004 after successfully leading efforts to create, interpret and implement the various transportation programs that are available to improve conditions for bicycling and walking as the League’s State and Local Advocacy Director. Before joining the League in February 2003, Clarke was on contract to provide technical assistance to the highly regarded Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center on site at the Federal Highway Administration. He is on the Board of Directors for America Bikes, and a member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals.
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November 8th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
The Vail case is particularly egregious: The DA is more worried about Erzinger’s billion-dollar portfolio than whether Erzinger ran down a human being and left him for dead.
Find somewhere else to ski and let Vail know why you are boycotting them.
November 8th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
I myself was the victim of a felony hit-and-run in August 2006…it was nearly six months before I was able to return to work. I have two permanent metal plates above my left ankle from the injury; the guy who hit me had no license or insurance, and got off with a slap on the wrist. If these prosecutors cannot do any better to punish these offenders (i.e., Vail, CO), I certainly won’t be going to Vail anytime soon (or towns like it).
November 8th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Andy, you forgot this one. One has to have a strong stomach to read this stuff.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/10/26/cyclists-rougemont-killed.html
November 8th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
49 states and the Corporation of Colorado? Where the scales of justice weigh gold instead of guilt?
Oregon passed a Vulnerable Road User law a few years ago – Washington State tried but the the bill died in committee.
How many states do have some teeth in their laws for hitting people not protected by air bags and cages?
These stories strike me as separate and unequal justice. Silly me, I would of thought all men would be equal under the eyes of the law.
November 8th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
It would make no difference if that asshat in a two or three ton Benz had run down a cyclist or if he had run down and clobbered someone in a subcompact car. We need to stop concentrating on “vulnerable users” and concentrate on the crime, which is the same.
The net result is that money, in this case, clearly buys justice. Where is the Tea Party when you need it? Co-opted by the same money, I guess. Call me cynical. The cynicism of that DA, worrying about that guy’s job instead of the horror he inflicted, just simply takes my breath away.
November 8th, 2010 at 11:41 pm
My son got killed by a hit and run driver in October of 2008 while riding his bike in Texas returning to Sheppard Air Force base. The driver is still at large. The only information that I am privy to is that the vehicle was red. I am not in a financial position to hire a private investigator. I want justice.
November 9th, 2010 at 2:10 am
I hate reading about these all-too-often cases where motorists are given less punishment for hitting a pedestrian or cyclist than they are for hitting another car.
NE Ohio is working with the Ohio Dept of Transportation on a bicycle / motorist safety initiative funded partly through Federal Safety Funds. We would love to use ideas that have already been tested in other cities rather than start from scratch. If you know of programs such as blinky light giveaways or rewarding law-abiding bicyclists who stop at red lights or motorist awareness programs, please send to lois@walkroll.com.
November 9th, 2010 at 9:04 am
I’ve been saying it for years every opportunity I get.
What needs to happen is that traffic homicides need to be strict liability offenses. Just like every other traffic offense.
Blow a stop sign and tell the officer you didn’t see the sign? Tough luck. Your mental state doesn’t matter. Didn’t realize that last drink was going to put you over the limit? That’s no excuse.
But if you KILL someone, all of a sudden the prosecution has to prove you were negligent to even charge you with a misdemeanor. And a much higher mental standard for a felony charge.
I don’t believe that special penalties should be carved out for killing a cyclist (or pedestrian, or motorcyclist, as other advocacy efforts have been trying). It only reinforces their sense of us as “other” and that we want “special privileges” to use the road. Killing someone with your car should be a crime whether or not that someone was in a car. And it should not be any more difficult to prosecute that crime than it is to prosecute any other crime someone commits using their car.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:17 am
One thing that has to change in order to make progress is those state laws that set the parameters for charging traffic felonies. In many places, this is the biggest hurdle to clear in charging more serious traffic crimes. You have to convince a judge that the motorist was not just careless when he kills, but downright crazy, i.e., reckless or worse.
Currently in places such as New Mexico, you have to be drugged or drunk or charged with reckless driving to be arrested on a traffic felony for killing someone. Otherwise, its a misdemeanor at best. For example, recently in Albuquerque, a woman lost control of her car, ran over an embankment, and killed a man cycling on a bike path with his family. She said something was wrong with her tire. After a long investigation, she was charged with a traffic felony only after it was stated by witnesses that she was driving recklessly (i.e., tailgating, speeding, weaving in and out of traffic). Of course in Albuquerque, I’m not convinced a jury will consider that kind of driving out of the ordinary. That is a separate issue.
Perhaps the bar is set too dang high in part, of course, because at least a few of our legislators speed, text, call their mistresses on the cell, and hit the watering hole after a long day at the State Capitol. Our outgoing governor was once criticized for having his official driver speed him between meetings at close to triple digits. Thats speeding even here in the West.
November 9th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Drivers who hit and kill cyclists here enjoy the same leniency. It seems sufficient to say “I didn’t see the cyclist”, appear sorry, and no charges are filed. One woman who killed a prominent CEO actually said she was looking in her purse for her cellphone for just a second when the cyclist “appeared” on a long, straight road……
Our city recently put up nice numbered bike route and Share the Road signs. Sadly, these mean nothing if the law doesn’t enforce our rights by prosecuting drivers who are criminally negligent.
November 9th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Drunk driving was also dismissed before MADD came on the scene. Perhaps we need a BADD (Bicyclists Against Distracted Drivers) as an organization to lobby for increased awareness and punishment for drivers killing bicyclists and pedestrians.
November 9th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
We need to go farther than MADD or BADD. As Andy says, a single, wide-scope traffic justice program is desperately needed. We made a stab at this a few years back at Pro-Bike/Pro-Walk. Maybe the League can pick up the pieces, glue them together, and run with this.
http://www.bikewalk.org/tji.php
November 9th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
The blog suggests we contact our state legislators. We need two things from LAB–a list of which states have adequate laws dealing with motorists killing or injuring cyclists, and second, suggested wording for new legislation where needed. What has worked?
November 10th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Apparently, Toronto, Ontario will need a little traffic justice.
http://labikes.blogspot.com/2010/11/lucky-you-dont-live-in-toronto.html
November 10th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
I agree with #8 (Susan), and I have the same question as #13. What has worked as far as new wording regarding legislation?
Here in Alabama, if you run over a cyclist, you can only be charged if you are drunk or on drugs, a police officer witnesses what happened at the time, or if it can be proved that the motorist has “willful intent” to kill you.
That leaves free any motorist to be on their cell phone or texting away, kill a cyclist without so much as a manslaughter charge.
I count how many people I see texting on my 8 Kilometer route to work. The lowest was 3, the highest was 34. That is seriously dangerous distracted driving. In my 15+ years of bicycle commuting here, distracted driving by people texting and on their cell phones is the number one hazard I have to watch out for avoid every single day.
Here in Huntsville, Alabama, we now have texting as secondary offense, but how is that going to help me or my family when a distracted motorists kills or injures me?
This needs to change and while the BASC and Alabike are doing what they can, what can the individual cyclist do to get the message across that the laws need to be treated equally for bicyclists in these situations? What wording can we use to make our legislators pay attention and do something about this inequity?
November 11th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Cyclists need to educated also. I see many cyclists riding on the wrong side of the rode, not using proper hand signals and riding at night with dim or no lights.
November 14th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Bicyclists are no different than motorists. If there are not consequences, there will not be compliance. For example:
http://www.edhat.com/html/california_stop.html
“…Another popular, but illegal, California driving habit is the legendary California Stop, the act of slowing down but not fully stopping at a stop sign. The dedicated staff of edhat.com wanted to see how prevalent this behavior was in our fair city. Maybe in LA, we thought, where rushing is a way of life … but in Santa Barbara? …In a sample of 300 cars, the dedicated staff only saw 50 full stops (16.67%)…”
Seventeen percent compliance? Looks to me like motorists are as bad as bicyclists. Not surprising, since both classes of vehicles are operated by the same human beings.
December 18th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
The Vail cluster * is a “dead in the water” issue (bad analogy conceded)
The matter of the DA pleading the matter down notwithstanding his ADA originally charging as a felony (from what I have read) is a simple matter of prosecutorial discretion wrongly execised on the part of the DA
It is entirely a local issue that the citizens/voters need to consider (assuming that the DA is an elected office)
If anyone thinks complaining about it is gonna change anything, it ain’t!
December 18th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/12/news/the-explainer-thoughts-on-erzinger-and-why-i-wont-boycott-vail_153394