Personal Injury Law

Bikes and cars can be deadly

By Steve Lombardi

With all the text messaging and cell phones being used while operating cars it's no wonder more cyclists aren't injured or killed. A Shelton man was recently killed when struck from behind. The number of cars and the size of some of them put cyclists at a disadvantage. 

I'm not sure how a cyclist who is struck from behind is to avoid that type of accident? Certainly a cyclists riding in front of a car is in plane view and can be avoided. It leads those looking at it afterwards to wonder if there was a distraction that took away the car driver's attention.

An investigation would likely consider the driver's attention, distractions, whether the windshield was clean and maintained, the riders clothing color, reflectors, movements just prior to the crash, how long the driver was following the rider, the elevation of the roadway, any hills or other potential obstructions to view, the weather conditions, the cars speed, the sobriety of each, the sun, the time of the day, the direction of travel of each, other traffic conditions that required attention and could have become a distraction and the driver's actions.

Bicycle safety is a concern as is awareness of car driver's as to slower and smaller vehicles using the road. It seems that even pedestrians have become an issue in Des Moines with the Mass Transit or bus system. We all need to focus on our driving, period. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, has a YouTube on bicycle safety tips for adults. Bicycling commuters can find useful information geared just towards their safety issues. City of Austin has a pretty good set up tips for commuters. Even the Consumer Products Safety Commission, CPSC, has a 1997 safety tip list. Most of it seems to be geared towards the bicyclist, which seems short sighted. We need to gear the tips towards drivers of cars and trucks too.

Be aware, be safe and wear your helmet.

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on April 17, 2008 (boomark / email).