uke

Make sure s/he's on a bicycle, and make sure you're in a car.

One of the more interesting articles from my daily search.
At least the two comments on the article made a note of how utterly absurd this was. But for those of you out there thinking of a guaranteed way to get away with murder, it seems the cheapest (and most effective) way to do it is to put your victim on a bicycle, put yourself in a vehicle, and hit the gas.

DCCommuter

We had a case here in DC where a motorist ran over an officer who was directing traffic and killed him. This was at rush hour at a notoriously clogged intersection -- Wisconsin and M. No charges of any kind were filed.

Red Horn

Utterly absurd! Negligently kill someone and not even parole!!!??? This is surely one way to not make motorists see the danger they pose to other rightful users of the road ways.

twinquad

There's a third comment now, which is not only anti-cyclist, but apparently a threat. I have to stop reading those comment boards.

Red Horn

After being rear ended a few times while stopped in traffic while on a motorcycle (once by another motorcycle!) I for one will not ever be a "sitting duck" to become smashed between 4000+ lbs of steel and glass. I just pull out of traffic until it resumes moving.

Dchiefransom

This year on December 31st at midnight, some dolt will fire a firearm into the air, and will be arrested and do time in jail, even if he/she doesn't hit anyone. A deadly tool is a deadly tool.

zeytoun

Just remember that the internet is like an id machine.

Rollfast

The title of this thread is too inflammatory and suggests malice is implied on behalf of the OP.

This forum's purpose should be to promote safety issues to the cycling community and motorist alike, not to suggest an issue of True Crime Stories or FOX News. We are all here to be advocates for our sport and our passion. The sarcasm is making this useless.

JeffB502

Sad but true...it's pretty obvious that if there are no witnesses it's cheaper for a driver to just kick it into reverse and make sure the pedestrian or cyclist they ran over is dead since it's alot cheaper to kill somebody than injure them. Apparently prosecution for vehicular homicide is unpopular because potential jurors realize they're driving vehicles that could kill somebody at any time and they don't want to be convicted of vehicular homicide just for being stupid/negligent while using their deadly weapons.

Szczuldo

my god this story is ridiculous. The title is very amusing, but it's sickening how he got away with a slap on the wrist..usually ANY violation against a police officer results in higher penalties..but hey..the driver actually got ticketed, which doesn't even always happen.

JeffB502

lol yeah very recently we had a case where a person in a motor vehicle got confused at an on/off ramp, failed to obey the "DO NOT ENTER" signs and went head on into an off duty peace officer exiting the freeway and killed the peace officer. I'm pretty sure the motorist in that case was convicted of manslaughter, probably because the off duty officer was in a car...

Cyclaholic

I can't think of any other situation that gives one human being the power to take the life of another for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and face virtually no repercussions. Even military personnel in combat can't just summarily execute someone that poses no threat to them whatsoever without potentially serious repercussions. Our society's dysfunctional addiction to the motorcar is palpable.

FriendlyFred

this is a point I've been making to anyone who'll listen. When did it become ok to kill people simply because they happen to be on a bicycle. In these incidents, if you removed the cyclist from the bike and had them become pedestrians, the motorist would be prosecuted. You see it over and over and over again....kill a cyclist and there are virtually no repercussions for the motorist. It has to be incrediably agregious for any negative results for the motorist.

edited to add....I agree, the title of this thread could have been worded in a less inflamatory way

Allister

Quite right. Obviously he shouldn't be prosecuted when it was the car that struck the cyclist.

It should read '...a man who struck and killed a cyclist with his car...'

keiththesnake

Wow. The cyclist cop must have been pretty unpopular in his department for the reports to be drafted in a way so as to ensure the prosecutor wouldn't authorize a felony case.

slagjumper

Well from what I've seen on u tube, blackwater can shoot at any car that "comes too close". The link is a video of someone shooting out of the back of a moving vehicle, at every car that got within 300 feet.

I am not sure that such behavoir is without repercussions, but often there is no legal action. In someways blackwater is more justified in shooting at cars behind them, than someone who is not prosecuted for injuring a law abiding cyclist.

Red Horn

The key issue here is that he was not an active (on duty) cop at the time but an active cyclist .

Denny Koll

To be fair, I'm sure the motorist is extremely embarrassed about the incident.

Rollfast

To be even fairer, it's not easy to even ascertain that the cyclist was a cop or where the cop was or perhaps HE did it.

Please make this clearer next time. It saves us from a few things immediately.

uke

I certainly would be if I got ticketed for driving without a seatbelt. He should have been able to get it on after adjusting the radio.

Red Horn

???

kuan

What conditions need to be present in order for vehicular manslaughter charges to be brought against the driver? He did not intend to hit the cyclist. He was not speeding nor was he driving recklessly. He was not drunk. There was no road rage involved. There is no law against fiddling with your radio in the car. As much as I am on the dead man's side I would find it hard to find much fault with the driver.

gcottay

Well said. Thank you.

rbrian

Yeah, except for the bit where he killed somebody. There may not be laws against fiddling with the radio, but there are laws about driving without due care and attention.

Cyclaholic

You have got to be joking..... As far as I'm aware there's no law that explicitly prohibits driving while juggling beach balls, but if you run someone down and kill them because you were 'distracted' by trying to keep the colorful balls all up in the air then you're not at fault?

The choice made by the driver to (juggle beach balls/fiddle with radio/talk on cellphone/eat a cheeseburger/whatever) instead of concentrating on safely operating his potentially lethal machine was at the root cause of the cyclist's death.