Advocacy & Safety - Cyclist sues 11 y/o inline skater

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070301/COMMUNITIES11/703010351

I came across this on digg.com and wanted to hear your thoughts.

I think this is outrageous and unnecessary legal action. I understand that an incident took place and that the party in question suffered an injury as a result. However this is either a) really bad luck or b) inappropriate riding behaviour on the part of the cyclist: The poor child reacted in an inexperienced manner, but that is what kids do. To say "But people are responsible for their actions" is just downright shameless - it is not as if this was a case of kids trying deliberately to knock people off their bikes.

That is my opinion at least.

Ed

A 54 year old adult should know a lot better than to yell out at a rollerblading child and expect them to hold a straight line. He obviously was not passing at a safe distance nor properly yielding if her movement to the right caused a collision. Get over yourself, doc. You did something dumb and luckily only you got hurt.

What a crock...in most jurisdictions...unless I am mistaken it is the responsibility of the over taking "vehicle" to avoid hitting the one they are passing. IMHO he passed entirely too close if they were on a road way and the kid was on rollerblades. I might could see it on a MUP...

Aaron:)

Crazy,

I hope the Doc loses and has to pay court costs.

-D

"The accident expert said on Wednesday Dlugi could have avoided the collision by simply riding around the skater."

haha...owned. in American English: "a doctor?? are you kidding me?? you gotta be a freaking idiot to not avoid that kid!"

I didn't read the article, but the idea of suing a child just doesn't sit right by me. We're all going straight to heck. Civilization is over.

"The accident expert said on Wednesday Dlugi could have avoided the collision by simply riding around the skater."

haha...owned. in American English: "a doctor?? are you kidding me?? you gotta be a freaking idiot to not avoid that kid!"

yeah, this guy should be ashamed of himself.

I have noticed that when ever I give notice before passing most people move right but some do move left to see what’s up (I guess they have never experienced a person giving notice before.) So I usually wait for some sort of an acknowledgment before passing (lateral movement or a motion of the hand or head) or I pass with enough distance and/or slowness just in case they do decide to move laterally. I have had people nearly u-turn into me because they did NOT hear me (dang pod zombies) but never because they did hear me (and I startled them.)

What I don’t understand is most skaters travel faster then walking so the skater should be doing >4mph and if the doctor is doing 8 mph that’s not much of a speed difference. Something really does not seem right here.

Please continue the discussion in the thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=273766) in General Cycling Forum. I'm closing this thread.

--J, a Forum Mod