Not to be a broken record but . . .
Several readers sent me the link to today’s Arizona Star article about Gene Duval, who at 59 years old is back in the saddle and riding this year’s El Tour de Tucson after an injury last December that nearly killed him. He was badly hurt when a pickup truck coming at him turned left into his path and ran over him, but he vowed he would ride again, and here he is doing it. Gene Duval, I salute you! Good luck on Saturday.
What my readers picked out of the article, though, was the fact that the Tucson Police Department cited him at the scene for riding on the sidewalk, something the nine-time veteran El Tour’s 109 mile race was not doing.
It reminded me of my own life. Just yesterday I was in trial for a bicycle-commuter client of mine who was struck by a driver who was going the wrong way on 6th Street. My client looked in the direction one would expect traffic to be coming and was then hit by this fellow. Like Mr. Duval, he was lucky to survive–he got hit squarely by a van that was probably going 25 miles per hour.
Needless to say, while in the hospital with various broken and dislocated limbs, my client was visited by the Tucson Police and ticketed for failing to yield.
It took a full-on trial, complete with witnesses, diagrams, exhibits, photos, and the testimony of two police officers, but in the end the judge found that my client did not have a statutory obligation to yield in this instance. Well, duh.
Meanwhile, a drug-impaired driver in Tucson can literally run a cyclist down in broad daylight and kill him and get nothing out of it but a misdemeanor. Do I sound like a broken record? It’s only because I am trying to make a change.
–Erik Ryberg
November 20th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Thanks again for sticking up for us Erik–good job bud—D
November 21st, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Where to put this comment?
There are days when you think the children are being taught to work a sliderule upside down and then there are other days:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/103250.php
Is there any possibility of “serious cyclists” getting involved with kids in an educational way (the rewards may be mutual)
For the cause?