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Enough is enough — another fatality in Tampa
Sad to say that the awful series of fatal bike crashes in Tampa last year has carried over into the new year. Despite a gratifying response to the need for improved bike safety in the area – including the development of a Bike Safety Action Plan – yet another rider was killed last Sunday, this time by a driver who was likely racing and was certainly going way too fast for the roadway. No charges have yet been filed against the driver.
(Photo by Alan Snel)
After reviewing this latest cyclist fatality, AND looking at the dreadful pedestrian crash story in this area AND the almost daily serious crashes involving just motorists throughout the Tampa Bay area, we figure it’s time to really challenge the community to tackle the scourge of careless, dangerous and reckless driving behavior that is making life miserable for everyone out there. We also realized that most of the action plan, and most of the pedestrian safety plans and programs in the area over the years have all focused on cyclists and pedestrians…and at some point that just isn’t ever going to be enough. Cyclists are getting hit while they are doing everything right – even when they are standing on the sidewalk with their bikes they are getting hit by cars.
Therefore, we are encouraging Tampa area residents to get out and support the bicycle safety action plan in the coming weeks but also to demand something more: that the police and court system hold drivers accountable, and get dangerous drivers off the road. The Florida Bicycle Association lobby day in Tallahassee is March 24 – maybe it’s time to get a vulnerable road user law on the books that gives the law enforcement community a tool they can use to charge dangerous drivers with something that carries a meaningful penalty and sends a message that this kind of criminal behavior isn’t acceptable.
Hillsborough County residents, send this action alert to your elected officials. Everyone, click on that link to read our letter to Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County Commissioners.
The three public meetings on the proposed bicycle safety action plan are:
February 24, 2011, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Pizzo elementary School (cafeteria), 11701 USF Bull Run Dr, Tampa
March 01, 2011, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Bloomingdale Regional Library, 1906 Bloomingdale Ave, Valrico
March 02, 2011, 6:00pm – 7:30pm
Broward Elementary School (cafeteria), 400 W. Osborn Ave, Tampa
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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February 18th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
Drivers are NEVER held accountable. Too many old, drunk, young stupid drivers on the roads! Driving is not a right it is a privilege, the respective motor vehicle depts must stop handing out licenses like they are free!
Law enforcement must do a better job and friggin idiot judges must start doling out maximum penalties for drunk, reckless and inattentive drivers…period!
February 18th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
For about 4 years I used to bike commute 2-3 a week from Riverview to downtown St Petersburg (an 80mile round trip) During this time I saw plenty of incidents from reckless drivers with no regards for the safety of cyclists, to include other cyclists not following proper road rules. I saw cops that didn’t take any action after seeing drivers endangering bike riders, and I also witnessed cops that aggressively went after and pulled other drivers for cutting in front or getting too close to cyclists. Point is.. we all are responsible for ensuring the safety of everyone on the road. As cyclists, we must ensure we follow the rules of the road properly, law enforcement officials should enforce the laws, the courts should hold accountable those that break those laws, and all of us together, to include the appropriate governmental entity, should work towards increasing awareness and educate the public. I can list dozens of incidents I’ve witnessed or been part of, but none ever deterred me from riding. Guess I’m one of the lucky few, yet it is still extremely painful to see news like this. Question.. what engineering company designed the new South Tampa Gandy corridor with no bike lanes nor shoulder? I imagine it was a money thing..
February 19th, 2011 at 6:30 am
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February 19th, 2011 at 9:52 pm
New Mexico cyclists held a joint rally with the New Mexico Motorcycle Rights Foundation at the Santa Fe State Capitol today. The purpose was to memorialize fallen riders and push for passage of House Bill 68, which would enhance penalties for careless drivers who kill or injure others.
http://labikes.blogspot.com/2011/02/traffic-justice-two-views.html
February 20th, 2011 at 10:05 am
From the ABC link:
“…According to a Sheriff’s Office statement, a Ford Five Hundred driven by Christina Perenzuela was traveling eastbound on Fletcher when she apparently lost control and hit Neilbalec, who was in the designated bicycle lane.
Perenzuela was traveling at a high rate of speed in tandem with a 2001 Honda driven by Armando Perez, Jr. It’s not clear if the two drivers were racing, according to the statement.
No charges have been filed. The investigation remains open. ”
“Apparently” lost control? Gimme a break. We had a similar bicycling fatal in Albuquerque a few months back. IN that case, the driver went off the road, over an embankment, and hit a cyclist on a nearby bike path. Finally, the driver was charged with vehicular homicide when witnesses and investigators were able to put together evidence of reckless that put the lie to the driver’s “official story”, which was more along the lines of “Gee officer, something just went fishy with my car”. But its like pulling teeth on these cases to hold bad drivers accountable. What the heck do we need as cyclists, sidearms?
February 23rd, 2011 at 11:11 am
I sincerely hope that banning talking / texting on phones while driving is part of this discussion. When I’m biking to / from work, 25-50% of the drivers are on the phone, smoking, eating, etc. It is amazing to me that this is still legal in Florida.
February 24th, 2011 at 10:29 am
While tragic and there is no replacing human life, we can not stop riding bikes because we are afraid.
The League is correct that education is a two way street, punn intended. Drivers who take the 55 and alive classes are now being instructed in how to deal with cyclists. Cyclists also are learning about defensive cycling.
Our law enforcement and courts are already overwhelmed with car crashes and expecting them to change is a little far fetched. However we can help them by conitnuing to support eduction.
What is so crazy is that this is happening in florida. It is flat, there is no ice on the roads and yet peole claim to loose control of their cars. They are driving way to fast for the conditions. I thought southerners were a little more laid back and easy going. Let’s all bring out the best in people.
February 24th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
Florida, Texas and California continue to be the Big Three, leading the US year after year in cycling deaths. In 2009, there were 630 fatalities in the US. FL, CA & TX had 107, 99 and 48, or 40%.
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811386.pdf
I would like to hear from Floridian cyclists and bike safety folks as to what they think is going on down there… up here in OH, we tend to stereotypically picture FL drivers as old, retired folks driving big cars – or tourists – driving on relatively flat roads. Are drivers just that bad – too easy to get distracted? Are cyclists not cycling safely? Are the roads just too long and straight and boring and fast and motorists “zone out?” Is drunk driving a bigger problem in FL than elsewhere? Is distracted driving a bigger issue? Where’s RAY LAHOOD on this one then?
No answers here. But, to respond to “Tom” above, the LEO’s and Courts are NOT overburdened by car crashes at all. The reason nothing happens to these drivers is that the Legislatures have failed, almost uniformly in this country, to recognize that driving a car carelessly is the equivalent of waving a loaded gun around carelessly. The results are just as predictable, and just as deadly – moreso with cars, actually, since they are bigger than bullets and more likely to be in close proximity to MANY living, breathing humans than a guy with a gun, who tends to be around 1 or 2.
Legislatures treat driving a car like a god-given, inalienable right found in the 2nd Amendment – thou shalt be entitled to bear arms and drive a car – often at the same time. Legislatures have laws in place for those rare instances when someone INTENTIONALLY kills, but very few laws with any teeth when someone CARELESSLY kills or maims with a car.
In Ohio, when I testified in favor of a law upping the potential penalty to include stiffer fines and longer license suspensions [but NO jail time] when a “minor” right of way violation resulted in death I was told by an old friend on the Law Committee that “We Don’t Want To CRIMINALIZE NEGLIGENCE.” That law is still percolating in committee and we’ll try again this year.
I say it’s HIGH TIME we DO criminalize negligence, when the negligence relates to activities where there is a very high risk that someone will be killed or maimed due to negligence. If someone carelessly drives a lawn mower or mishandles a power tool, the odds of death to others are small. If someone carelessly drives a 2 ton vehicle through a red light because they are fiddling with the radio dial, are “zoned out” or are texting or putting on make-up or reading the paper or downloading a fax on their smartphone, the odds are HIGH that someone will be killed or maimed…
Stiff criminal penalties DO have an impact on behavior… these are not “accidents” caused by a act of God, they are preventable crashes caused by the careless lack of attention of someone engaged in a potentially dangerous behavior.
OK, I’ll step back from the soapbox and microphone now…
Steve Magas
February 25th, 2011 at 12:07 am
Perfectly said, Steve. Many of these are not Acts of God. They are Acts of Willful Carelessness.
I’ve been buried in bullshit lately, but our House Judiciary Committee gave strong support to a bill upping penalties on negligent traffic behavior leading to death or injury. We have to see what the whole House does.Interestingly, it was the motorcyclists who turned out in great force on this one and the bill was introduced by a legislator who rides motorcycle. Ohio has built the same coalition. Others should too.
Steve has seen this post. For others:
http://labikes.blogspot.com/2011/02/traffic-justice-two-views.html
February 25th, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Steve Magas said: “Florida, Texas and California continue to be the Big Three, leading the US year after year in cycling deaths.”
Those are among the states with the highest populations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population
The NHTSA link lists “Pedalcyclist Fatalities per Million Population” with Florida being high, and Delaware even worse.
What we really need is “Pedalcyclist Fatalities per Million Cycling Miles” but that denominator is difficult to measure accurately.
None of that excuses the lax treatment of dangerous motorists, but perhaps the states aren’t all that different if we could accurately measure the amount of cycling.
February 26th, 2011 at 10:06 am
Cycling miles or perhaps total cycling hours or cycling-hours/motoring-hours. Its the usual question of what is the best metric to measure exposure and risk. I doubt total cyclists or numbers of bikes works, because that doesn’t indicate how often someone rides (or drives, for that matter).
February 26th, 2011 at 10:32 pm
I’ve never seen a good “risk” assessment. Hours of exposure makes more sense than comparing miles ridden to miles driven. Counting bikes or riders doesn’t work because cars HAVE to be driven on the road, many bikes are NEVER driven on the road, so their risk of a car crash is zero.
I am working on a project to examine EACH fatal crash in Ohio. Fortunately, we ‘only’ have 10-20, so it’s not as daunting of a task as reviewing every FL, TX or CA crash, I guess. I am going to review what happened in each crash and see if the street cop’s assessment of “fault” was accurate. I’m hoping that this will help show how SAFE cycling is by showing that each of these was a blip on the bike riding radar.
I’m NOT going to tackle a “risk assessment” or statistical study. The death numbers are too small, the situations too varied… bike trails and cross walks and rural roads and urban streets and night crashes and alcohol…
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s1103.pdf
FL, CA & TX ARE the 3 biggest states and lead the way in total traffic deaths in 2008. The highest “fatality rates” [per 100 million miles] though were in Montana [2.1], Louisiana [2.0] and Mississippi [1.8], even though they would most likely not land on ANYONE’s “most dangerous state to drive in.”
Trying to get a handle on “risk” for cycling based on numbers is difficult. According to NHTSA [http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pubs/811156.pdf], DELAWARE leads the way in the cycling deaths per million people at 6.87, followed closely by FL at 6.82. No other state got out of the 3′s. NM and NC were next at 3.53 and 3.47 deaths per million people. Other states in the 3′s include cycling deathtraps like MAINE, and MONTANA, and South Carolina! CA [2.97] and TX [2.18] don’t look all that bad in this numbers game…
Maybe what these numbers really tell us is that Florida is WAY out of whack compared to everyone else and Delaware just had a bad year with 6 cycling deaths [which amounted to a whopping 5% of all traffic deaths in the state.] I dunno…
Steve Magas
March 1st, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Does anyone know anything about vuelta wheels? they look like they have some good products but i want someone elses opinion.
the site is http://www.vueltausa.com/
April 6th, 2011 at 1:29 pm
I took my drivers test In Florida because at 45 it was much safer to have a car here for protection than get around on a bicycle. After driving school and about a year on the road experience I went for my road test that took place in a parking lot, and not exceeding a speed of 15mph, parking between two cones, backing up, and making a three point turn… I passed the test. I asked why we didn’t go out on the road, she replied that it was a liability risk for the employees to go on the road.
I didn’t need all that school and learning, I could of passed this test with my eyes closed! And drivers here in Florida will honk at you if your on a bike to get out of the way. I miss cycling in Florida. I hope they raise gas prices so high… lots more cars will be off the road!
July 29th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Need to improve road safety and to strengthen the place with police to stop these atrocities.
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