Green Valley News on Jerome Featherman
The Green Valley News has a quite good article on Jerome Featherman, who was killed by an inattentive motorist on September 3. It seems that Mr. Featherman was a skilled and cautious cyclist, but his care and skill was no match for the man who drifted into the bike lane and drove into him from behind. Jerome never had a chance.
The reporter working on this article called me because he could not believe that you can run down a bicyclist in the bike lane and kill him and get away with only a civil traffic violation. He wanted me to explain that to him.
So I told him that we do have a statute in Arizona, the negligent homicide statute, which would apply to these crimes, but unfortunately it is never applied to motorists who kill bicyclists.
Negligent homicide is appropriate when a person causes the death of another person with criminal negligence. A.R.S. 13-1102. Criminal negligence occurs when “a person fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur. The risk must be of such nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.” A.R.S. 13-105.
Does the failure to perceive the risk of driving in the bike lane constitute a gross deviation from the care a reasonable person would take? You could argue that this was merely momentary inattentiveness, but the fact that thousands of drivers sped past Jerome Featherman in his lifetime without crashing into him suggests to me that reasonable people do indeed take the needed precautions not to strike bicyclists from behind.
I currently have two bicycles in my office that belong to victims of hit-from-behind incidents, and I look at them every day. They both look very similar, with bent rear stays and wheels that have literally been cut in half.
One bike belongs to a young woman who was hit at about 45 mph or so. She flew into the air in a frightening arc and slammed into the pavement, but, miraculously, was more or less okay. She didn’t even break any bones.
The other is from a man who was also hit at about 45 mph, and did not survive. He was run over by the vehicle that hit him.
The difference, it seems to me, lies completely in the design of the car. Neither cyclist ever had a chance to avoid these accidents, but one was hit by a compact car that was braking, and her center of gravity was such that she went up onto the windshield (as did the folks hit last week in the Shootout Ride).
The other man was hit by a pickup that was accelerating, and he went down, instead of up.
So ride carefully, and try to remember — mile for mile, cycling is safer than driving. Our job is to make it safer still, and from my vantage point, that primarily means changing the habits of motorists.
Erik Ryberg
September 17th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Are we really safer, mile for mile, than when driving? Can you cite your source? There have been so many scary headlines lately, I’ve cut down on my miles.
September 17th, 2009 at 10:08 am
If someone chooses to use their status enhancing vehicle on a public street they need to be held to a higher standard of operational competence then they are now.
The use of an automobile has become such a commonplace everyday event that the heavy responsibility that useing one entails is forgotten. This cavalier attitude has to be addressed and be personalized.
Getting a ticket for traffic violations has to be regarded as the crimes they are and not just an unfortunate event of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Causing property damage or injury to others in the public space must have harsh and financially crippling consequences.
Poor driving skill needs to be met with public scorn rather than indifference.
September 17th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Same thing happens in Canada as well:
Bob Mionske’s Blog on Bicycle Law and Advocacy: The Usual Suspects
September 17th, 2009 at 11:53 am
It’s the vulnerability of the victims in
these hit-from-behind bicycle assaults
that makes the danger seem ever-so-much-
more-so. The numbers may be up, but the
percentage of incidences is relatively
the same or less-according to crash
analysis by PAG. Our perception of
safety is greatly skewed by sensational
headlines of spectacular crashes…but
it is pretty safe to bicycle in Tucson.
The response the cops seem to give to the
demands that something be done about these
instances is to sting cyclists at out-of-
the-way four-way stop signs in the morning…
which does nothing for the rear-ended
cyclist in the afternoon. Maligned enforcement
is not the answer; Erik reports the laws exist.
Perception always lags behind reality and
prosecutors need to acknowledge the new nature
of negligence that is causing these ‘accidents’.
September 17th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Chad,
just because there isn’t a headline for a car-on-car fatality, does not mean that they are not out there. I can count on one hand the number of cyclists killed in the last year in Tucson. I am certain the number of automobile fatalities is much much higher.
September 17th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
We had a summer of shark attack, and we had a summer of child abductions. This summer seems to be the cycling fatality. We had 2 this week in Phoenix. I don’t know if it’s being reported more, or if the incidence rate is actually higher.
I know drivers kill other drivers, but I’m really curious what the data says about car/bike crashes.
September 17th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
[...] General who went on to kill him. The Tucson Bike Lawyer says it actually is against the law to kill a cyclist in the bike lane, if they could only get someone to press charges. Finally, a cyclist in my home town is hit by a [...]
September 19th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
[...] There was a nice article about Jerome in the Green Valley News, interesting discussions about crimal negligence at tusconbikelawyer.com [...]
November 4th, 2009 at 6:33 am
This site has a lot of bicycle crash information.
http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/health/risks.htm
These stats are a little old:
motor vehicle fatalities
0.016 per million miles traveled
Bicycle fatalities
0.039 per million miles traveled
Data from Traffic Safety Facts 1997
and The Environmental Benefits of Cycling and Walking