Originally Posted by
slcbob
I'm not a lawyer and haven't stayed in a Holiday Inn Express lately. But I blanche at the use of the word "cause" there which implies various tiers of additional participation bordering on guilt for which I would not doubt you have some additional stick-around mandates / liabilities in some states. I'm curious if anyone knows if there are any states where you have legal obligations are as a material witness, participant, or bystander with no independent of potential guilt?
I do think there are some moral obligations to do so as a participant in a well-ordered society. But rarely the same thing as legal. In this case, it sounds to me that you are an innocent participant and not a cause.
Yeah... cause isn't the right word. When I lived in L.A. I was involved in a similar situation where I had the right of way, another car ran a light and collided with a parked car to avoid me. I decided to hang around and the cop said that even though I wasn't directly involved and did no wrong, I was supposed to hang around because I was still involved with the cause of the accident in that the other car swearved to avoid me, even though I had the right to be there. It was over 20 years ago now, so I don't remember the exact statute or anything.
Of course there is virtually no way to identify a cyclist (other than eyewitness, and we all know how invisible cyclists are to motorists), so it's probably not an issue.