Every once in awhile, someone on Bikeforums.net posts a story that just slights the hell out of cyclists. Usually, I think it can be said that the stories just aren’t completely examined before they’re thrown onto the air, but sometimes the misinformation is so blatant it almost seems intentional.
Take for instance this story, which appeared on KCTV5 a few days ago. There are a few glaring ommissions in it, namely reference to the following section of the Missouri Traffic Law:
“304.016. 1. (1) The driver of a vehicle overtaking another vehicle proceeding in the same direction shall pass to the left thereof at a safe distance and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken vehicle.”
That’s an interesting tidbit. Do you see where this puts the driver at fault? Just in case you can’t, my letter to the news desk appears after the jump.
I recently had an opportunity to watch a newscast in which two cyclists crashed. In the recitation of his story, the driver identified the very reason he is solely at fault for this incident.
During the video, the driver makes a statement which is paraphrased in the story on your site:
” The motorist said he slowed down, honked, waited for them to get out of the way and swerved when they didn’t, but the sideview mirror on his vehicle clipped one of their handlebars.
”Had he been following the law, his mirror never possibly could’ve clipped the cyclist’s handlebars. Missouri Traffic Law states the following:
“304.016. 1. (1) The driver of a vehicle overtaking another vehicle proceeding in the same direction shall pass to the left thereof at a safe distance and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken vehicle.”
I noticed Ms. Webster was very quick to point out the police saying technically the cyclists were at fault, but if the mirror of a car hits a cyclist’s handlebars, that means the car was in the lane long before it had safely cleared the cyclists. The police officer is mistaken in that the shoulder shown on the video accompanying your story is nowhere near safe for a cyclist to ride in single or double wide.
Also, judging from the video, Ms. Webster stood there giving the report and very few cars passed her by. I would say that speaks for the amount of traffic that road typically handles, and it lends itself to cyclists riding two abreast.
However, regardless of how the cyclists were riding, the driver of the car did not pass them safely and did not clear the cyclists adequately before re-entering the lane he left to pass them. Someone should bring this up to the police officer who reported his “technicality.”
Thank you,
Vincent M. Ferrari
Now I wonder. Is this laziness, a predisposed bias against cyclists (which is evidenced in many news stories in NYC so I imagine it isn’t much different elsewhere), or just inaccuracy for no other reason. I tend to lean toward it being a bias. The police officer’s claim of the cyclists “technically” being at fault is easily refuted, and by his own admission the driver was guilty.
What do you think?
(KCTV5 via Bikeforums.net)