Keep this incident report
Turns out if you right-hook a police officer, you get cited for making an improper turn.
Buick nearly collides with UAPD bicycle officer
UAPD officers were on routine bicycle patrol in the area of University Boulevard and Park Avenue on Oct. 13 at 10:45 a.m. when a white Buick nearly collided with an officer while making a right turn. Police initiated a traffic stop at Fourth Street and Park Avenue and made contact with the driver. The driver identified himself using an Arizona driver’s license. A records check revealed a suspended driver’s license. Police cited the man on charges of driving on a suspended license, making an improper right turn, and failure to provide proof of mandatory insurance. His vehicle was towed for a mandatory 30-day impound and he was released on scene.
I wish they had also cited all the people who have put my clients in the hospital by doing the same thing.
Next time they don’t, I think I’ll bring this up. Why is it illegal to right-hook a police officer but not a civilian? Is that in the statute somewhere?
–Erik Ryberg
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
ERIK, Can you say “double standard”? Also , can we say “selective enforcement”?
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Selective enforcement is unfortunately true.
I wish I had had my camera with me when, as I was cycling home at the end of a work day this past Summer in one of the most “bike friendly” cities in the US, I witnessed an officer on bike patrol ride his “Smith & Wesson” MTB through a red-light to make an illegal left (without even so much as signaling!), INTO the lane of a car which had the green (and, of course, right of way) who had to then forcibly apply his brakes to avoid hitting the cycling officer. I wonder what the driver would have been cited with were there a collision? :/
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:17 pm
This is one of those “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” moments. The majority (probably all) cyclist have at some point driven a car, so they know what it is like to drive.
But few cops (and drivers) have experienced rush hour on Campbell in a bike lane.
Of course a bike cop is going to give that ticket. I suspect if a bike cop was in a patrol car for a day and saw the same thing happen to a cyclist, he’d also write the ticket. ( I REALLY hope that is true)
It would be awesome if TPD made all of their recruits do a stint on bike patrol to see what it is really like.
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:43 am
[...] it. More from the Streetsblog Network: Systemic Failure wants to get bike lanes out of the gutter. Tucson Bike Lawyer wonders if drivers only get charged for making an improper turn if they end up hitting a police [...]
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:09 am
[...] from the Streetsblog Network: Systemic Failure wants to get bike lanes out of the gutter. Tucson Bike Lawyer wonders if drivers only get charged for making an improper turn if they end up hitting a police [...]
October 23rd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
I agree with Miohael. There should be a bike duty requirement for police departments all over the U.S. But I think they shouldn’t be in uniform. (After all, who is going to throw a full can of beer at a cyclist’s head if he’s TPD?) In several U.S. cities, police have gone undercover as pedestrians at crosswalks and you can imagine the citations issued. To my knowledge Tucson hasn’t tried it yet, but when they do (revenue, revenue, revenue) I think they should add undercover cops on bikes.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Hi, Eric. Just a question apropo of the defense lawyer in the LA road rage trial insinuating that the wreck was because the cyclist fell off an inherently unstable vehicle, not because of any action by his client. What wold you say about the inherent instability of a bicycle compared to a lawyer?
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 pm
[...] Bike Friendly City award, too. In Arizona, a right hook apparently isn’t illegal — unless you do it to a bike cop. In Texas, sharrows and bike boxes are considered experimental; in L.A., they’re non-existent. [...]
October 26th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
[...] from the Streetsblog Network: Systemic Failure wants to get bike lanes out of the gutter. Tucson Bike Lawyer wonders if drivers only get charged for making an improper turn if they end up hitting a police [...]
October 27th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I know I am a couple days late here, but I discussed this issue with the San Antonio PD and was told that in TX, police only issue citations for violations that they observed. Does this also explain the lack of citations for AZ bicycle accidents?
October 28th, 2009 at 6:03 am
Hey Robert, I don’t know about TX, or even Oklahoma, but in Tucson police officers respond to accidents all the time. They reconstruct the accident by talking to witness and the drivers of the two or more cars involved. They determine who is at fault and cite the driver responsible. What I find strange however, if the accident involves a bike and a car, this same process is not followed, and citations are sometimes not issued. WHY ?