The cyclist is just as dead if hit by a negligent delivery van driver than a reckless teenager or a distracted old fool. If the police continue to treat Motor Vehicle Homicide as a petty offense, drivers will never learn.
The Minneapolis cycling community (of which I am a part) needs to take a page from the MADD playbook and hound the police, prosecutor, and courts with all the publicity they can generate. The media WILL cover any demonstration with 30 or more participants. Use the internet, picket the police department and the prosecutor's office space. Pack the courtroom.
Talk to the press, the radio people, and the TV folks. Use political ACTION and EMOTION (show the family, distribute photos, humanize the deceased cyclist). It works.
If MADD could do it, cyclists can.
This should be done in every location, every time a cyclist is killed. Stop whinning on the internet and put a stop to leniency for these KILLERS. Call them what they are -- KILLER, not murderers but ordinary, garden variety careless, negligent, reckless KILLERS. And demand appropriate punishment for their HOMICIDE. This was not an "accident."
WE are in part responsible for the low value that the Criminal Justice System places on dead or injured bicyclists.
Besides publicity, a first step is to demand that the Legislature delete "grossly" from the criminal vehicular homicide and injury statute (section 609.21).
Last edited by trek2.3bike; 10-26-10 at 02:00 PM.