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Summary
This section of Bicycling in Austin details how
motorists frequently hit-and-run cyclists, and how even
those motorists who stay at the scene rarely receive
penalties. This section is very incomplete since we
don't have the time to investigate every detail or even
every case. If you have any more information, or if you'd
like to help us with the research, please contact us.
During the years we looked into this closely (late
90's), about half the cases of
cars killing or seriously injuring cyclists in the Austin
area were hit-and-runs, and we have little
reason to believe that anything has changed since
then.
And even among the minority of motorists who DO stop,
it's obvious that many of them would flee if they thought
they could get away with it. Think about that for a minute.
The next time you look out among a sea of cars, realize that
maybe half of those people are willing to hit you and just
leave you for dead. What a wonderful world we live in!
Patrick Goetz related two incidents of hit-and-runs in
March 2005 against people he knows, that occurred in a
two-week period. He writes "Given the large numbers of
commuter cyclists in this town (ahem) the fact that I
personally know two involved in hit and run accidents in
just a two-week period makes me wonder just how often this
is happening in the Austin area." Our guess is: A lot. I've
been hit & run'd four times myself.
Put this into perspective the next time motorists
complain how cyclists won't get respect until they start
following the law. Hit & running someone with a motor
vehicle is far more illegal than rolling a stop sign, but
when was the last time anyone suggested that
motorists as a class don't deserve to be on the road
until they start acting lawful?
Even in cases in which the
motorist doesn't get away, the motorist often will often
face no charges, and may be acquitted in the event that they
DO face charges.
The motorist who was at-fault for hitting Devorah
Feldman wasn't cited, the driver who ran over and killed Tom
Churchill was no-billed by a grand jury, and the drunk
driver who killed Andrew Turner and crippled Heather Sealey
had two trials, both resulting in a hung jury. Of the 180
local cases in which the police noted motorist-related crash
factors, citations were issued to motorists only 35% of the
time. (1994-96) For example, in the 39 cases in 1998 where
drivers caused or contributed to bike collisions by failing
to yield the right of way, citations were issued in only 14
cases. (source)
And people wonder why cyclists are upset? It time we hold
motorists accountable for their actions.
The flipside of this issue is
that cyclists often get arrested for minor traffic
infractions, even when they don't hurt or kill
somebody. In other words, it seems that it's easier to go to
jail for riding a bike on the sidewalk than it is for
running over and killing a cyclist with your car.
Here's our coverage of
this issue
Why is there no
justice? An article detailing the lack of
prosecution of at-fault motorists, and why that happens.
The Table. A table of the
major local cases, showing whether the case was a hit &
run, what (if anything) happened to the motorist, and other
items.
Details of the cases
listed in the table.
Overview of the justice
process. We explain what's involved for a
motorist to actually face charges and how long it takes.
What to do if you're hit or
harassed by a motorist.
How to Not Get Hit by
Cars. If all this is scaring you, then be
sure to check out our guide on how to not get hit. Of
course, these tips assume that motorists are trying to avoid
you. If they want to hit you intentionally, there's little
you can do to prevent it.
Examples of cases like these
outside Austin. We don't have the resources
to cover these issues outside of Autin in any detail, but
here are some examples.
Harassment from
Motorists. Besides motorists injuring and
killing us, sometimes they just threaten and harass us.
Collision
Statistics. We have a large section of
collision statistics here.
Police Criticism.
Some of the injustice we suffer is at the hands of the
police, who frequently arrest and send cyclists to jail for
minor traffic offenses like riding on the sidewalk, while at
the same time they fail to cite at-fault motorists who kill
or injure us.
Media Criticism.
Some of the injustice we suffer is at the hands of the local
media, which shifts the blame for collisions onto cyclists
even when the cyclists weren't at fault (maybe incompetence
or bias, or both), or which simply fails to report real news
-- such as the fact that motorists often face little or no
penalties for hitting us.
Referrals to
Attorneys. The only bicycle injury
attorneys we know of are listed on our "What
to do if you're hit..." page.
Who's usually at
fault:
This isn't easy to quantify for at least two
reasons. First, the police often don't even bother to
write up a report if the cyclist or bicycle isn't
seriously injured, so the data is woefully incomplete. As
Preston Tyree told us in Dec. 2000, "Most of the
statistics for bike injuries are severly undercounted. In
Texas for instance, the DPS only gets reports of crashes
that involve motor vehicles and in which the motor
vehicle sustains enough damage that it has to be towed.
(Fatalities do get reported even if the motor vehicle
isn't damaged.) While I've spent time in the hospital
from crashes on at least three occasions, none of those
show on the DPS statistics. However, they do show on the
lesser reported TDH statistics only because they were in
Travis County where the hospitals report emergency room
visits."
Leah Shahum of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
says its group's 2001 study concluded that police neglect
to report bicycle incidents. Out of about 40 injury cases
called in to the coalition's hotline, officers refused to
file reports one-third of the time.
(source)
Also, when the police do write a report, the
report can suffer from their anti-bike bias. If anyone
doubts that such a bias exists, look through this site at
all the cases where at-fault motorists fail to get
properly ticketed for injuring or killing cyclists. The
NYC group Right of Way says: "After NYC cycling
fatalities increased twofold in 1999, police rushed to
cover their, er, reputation by claiming (without analysis
or supporting data) that cyclists are to blame in 75% of
cycling deaths. Right of Way took a closer look.
Surprise! The truth is just the reverse, as listed in our
report, The
Only Good Cyclist (PDF)."
According to Right of Way, over
90% of cyclist deaths in NYC are the fault of
drivers.
More
Information. Please don't
write to ask for "more information" about any of these cases
(or cases not listed). If we know about it, it's
already here on the site. If it's not on the site, we don't
know about it. On the other hand, if you have more
information to provide, we would appreciate hearing
about it.
Links to other sites:
Most at-fault motorists who kill cyclists and
pedestrians get off the hook. A study
by the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition shows that
three out of four at fault drivers were
never even cited for hitting and killing pedestrians. 22%
of fatal pedestrian crashes involved hit and run drivers,
yet, none of the runaway motorists were found or
charged.(2003) In New York, 70-92% of drivers were
at-fault in killing pedestrians and cyclists, but 74%
didn't even get a ticket. (RightOfWay.org,
1999) Only 35% of at-fault Texas drivers get cited when
they hit a cyclist. (DPS,
via City of Austin)
Motorists usually at fault. Drivers are at
fault in almost 90% of pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in
New York. In over 90% of pedestrian fatalities, the
driver is male. (RightOfWay.org,
1999)
Chronicle's article on the lack of justice. The
Austin
Chronicle ran a big story, reporting in car-bike
collisions when the police noted that the motorist had
committed a moving violation, half the time they didn't
even bother to write the motorist a ticket. (Nov.
2006)
Driving
while Drowsy. More than half of Americans
admit to driving while drowsy. Is this really a problem?
Hell yes! Many fatalaties are caused by motorists who
fall asleep at the wheel. And when sleeping drivers
injure or kill cyclists, and then often don't face any
penalties! (For example, see the case of Jason
Boardman & Cameron Cooper, also listed in the
table.)
Cyclists
lose their bikes for riding without a
helmet. That's the threat by Holliston, MA
police. But will they confiscate cars from motorists who
aren't buckled up? Of course not.
APD's
Collision Database. Search the local
police department's database of collisions.
Explanation of cases listed
above in which cyclists received harsh
penalties
Cypress Sigman. Cypress was stopped for biking on
the sidewalk (late 90's) , and when she asked the officer
for clarification regarding the law against biking on the
sidewalk, she was arrested. FYI, Austin prohibits biking on
the sidewalk in a "business district", which is defined as
certain parts of downtown an the drag. More
on the law.
Tommy Eden. After Tommy was nearly sideswiped by a
police car, he caught up with the police officer, whose
window was rolled down, and told the officer that he'd
nearly hit him, and asked him to be more careful. The
officer ignored Tommy, so he repeated himself. The officer
ordered Tommy onto the sidewalk. Tommy complied, then asked
the officer for his badge number. The officer ignored him,
so Tommy kept asking. The officer kept ignoring him, until
he finally got out of the car and arrested Tommy. (mid
90's)
Reed Murray & Fred Meredith. Reed and Murray
were legally cycling side-by-side on a 5-lane roadway.
Another cyclist passed them on the left, so for a split
second they were three abreast. An officer gave all three
cyclists tickets. I was behind them, and witnessed the whole
thing. (1994 or 1995)
Bicycling without helmets. During the year that
Austin had a helmet law for adults (1996-97), we lost track
of how many adults got arrested (not just ticketed, but
arrested) for not wearing helmets. The law was amended in
1997 to apply only to those 17 and under, but now the
problem is that nearly all the no-helmet tickets given to
kids are given to black and Hispanic kids. More
on the helmet ordinance.
Bernadette Noll & her husband. Noll wrote an
article
about her experience in jail after for the Austin
Chronicle. (1996)
Brendan Guilfoyl. Pretty straightforward. Elliot
was being arrested (for biking on the sidewalk, I think),
and when Brendan asked why Elliot was being arrested,
Brendan was arrested. I may have gotten the victims
backwards (Elliot may have asked why Brendan was being
arrested), but I do remember seeing the police videotape of
this incident. (1993 or 1994)
Shaun Stenshol. A bike officer ordered Shaun to
pull his bike over, for no apparent reason. (I witnessed the
whole thing.) Shaun started to comply, but evidently not
fast enough, and the officer plus another one tackled Shaun
to the ground, then dragged him to a police van by his hair.
(October 1994)
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Easy Street Recumbents
