Bike Forums - View Single Post - Are motorists that kill cyclists prosecuted in your area?

06-30-10 | 04:37 PM

#31

DnvrFox

Banned.

Joined: Aug 2001

Posts: 20,915

Likes: 13

From Bicycle Colorado:

Denver - It sounds like you are asking whether drivers that are responsible for crashes involving bicyclists are being held accountable for their actions/inactions. There are two areas of the court system where this is addressed: traffic and civil. If you are aware of data or sources for detailed information on crashes involving bicyclists caused by motorists that indicates the outcomes, I would be interested to know of the sources.

FYI - from the League of American Bicyclists, approximately 47% of car/bike crashes are the fault of bicyclists (e.g. riding the wrong way on the road - against traffic) and 48% of car/bike crashes are the fault of motorists (e.g. turning left - failing to yield - in front of a cyclist).

Typically in traffic court, a motorist responsible for a crash with a bicyclist, is charged with careless driving. Just this year we supported a bill in the Colorado Legislature that significantly increased the punishment for careless driving resulting in death. Again, we are not aware of some mechanism for tracking the outcome of the courts on tickets specifically involving these types of crashes.

We often hear from attorneys or from bicycle victims of these types of crashes on the civil litigation side. Bicyclists typically prevail with appropriate judgements in these types of civil cases. We have worked very hard over the last 5 years to improve our laws so that bicyclists are protected and can receive appropriate judgements in these types of civil cases. Ten years ago there were many cases were this was NOT the outcome.

We still have significant work to do and rights that we've won that will need to be defended through legislative work, policy work, education and more.

Regards,

Scott Christopher
Outreach Program Manager
Bicycle Colorado
www.BicycleColorado.org

(p) 303.417.1544 ext. 17
(c) 303.668.5158
(f) 303.825.1038

Reply

0