Imagine you are driving down the road at 5 MPH below the speed limit. You are between interections and it's dark. Your headlights allow you to see clearly the road ahead of you. Suddenly a form speeds in front of you from the side - it is a blob of grey the same color as the dark road ahead of you, there are no lights, no reflective, you don't even have time to put your foot to the brake. You can't image what you've hit.
Should you be sent away to prison for twenty years? What did you do that was wrong? Were you at fault? Or was the cyclist who did not follow traffic law, did not have lights on, did not have light or reflective clothing, who threw himself right into your path not allowing you any time to take evasive action, was that cyclist at fault.
This cyclist appears to have attempted to cross a busy street not at an intersection but in the middle of the block. It does not state but we may find that dark clothing and no lights were also involved.
The motorist may or may not have been speeding. While the police report this time may not be as accurate as we deem necessary, after July, after BikeABQ has sponsored the Bicycle Pedestrian Crash Scene Investigation class for local police agencies, better and truth capturing reports should be available.
Now a motorist leaving the scene after the fact is another matter.
But sadly the truth is most crashes are the fault of the unsafe cyclist. Chose your battles carefully and go full force to the defense of the safe cyclist, and try to educate the unsafe cyclist to practice safe behavior.
Craig Degenhardt
--- On Fri, 3/13/09, bhaskins1 <bhaskins26 at comcast dot net> wrote: From: bhaskins1 <bhaskins26 at comcast dot net> |