Personal Injury Law

Motorists pleads guilty to intentionally causing Chicago bicycle accidents

By Kris Briggs

A second defendant has pleaded guilty to charges accusing him of purposefully hitting bicycles with his car in Brookfield. The 20-year-old pleaded guilty to aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and leaving the scene of an accident. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to two years of probation, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Riders already face the significant risk of a Chicago bicycle accident without motorists intentionally trying to run them off the road. While this may be an extreme case, our Chicago injury lawyers are frequently called to represent cyclists who have been run off the road or otherwise injured by an at-fault motorist. The Illinois Department of Transportation reports there were nearly 4,000 motorcycle crashes in 2008 -- 28 riders were killed and more than 3,300 were seriously injured.

This incident occurred on May 31, 2009 when the defendant was driving through Brookfield with his 18-year-old girlfriend at about 6:30 a.m. The girlfriend bet he wouldn't hit a cyclist and the defendant struck a 52-year-old rider on Washington Avenue before driving away. They switched places, and the girlfriend struck a 34-year-old rider a few blocks away. They were arrested a short time later.

The girlfriend pleaded guilty last week to aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and driving under the influence of alcohol. She was sentenced to 10 days in jail and two years of probation. The Active Transportation Alliance, an advocacy group, called the sentences outrageous.

The City of Chicago provides a safe cycling brochure for cyclists and offers a number of safety tips, including:

Fitting and equipping your bike

Maintenance checks

Parking your bike

Bike helmets

Traffic basics

Lane positioning, turning and passing

Trouble Situations

Off-street Bicycling

Riding at night and in bad weather

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Law Blog on June 25, 2010 (boomark / email).