There's a motorist out there who could kill you

When I read stories like this one, I wonder if my bicycle light giveaway experiment will have any value at all.

An 18-year-old teen struck a 21-year-old cyclist from behind at 12:45 a.m. Sunday in Wisconsin, throwing him up her car's windshield and killing him.

The report says that the driver, Quashae Taylor, is blind in one eye and needs corrective lenses or contacts, neither of which she was wearing. Taylor said she was travelling at 35 mph (the posted limit), due to the foggy conditions, when she took a cellphone call and closed her eyes as she said Hello. Then she hit something that she thought was a deer. A short distance on, she stopped and called for help.

Police found the body of Devin Kunich and a badly damaged bicycle. Taylor has been charged with one count of negligent homicide, and faces 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.

According to one report I read, Kunich was wearing dark clothing and had no lights on his bike. He did have reflectors: in his spokes (which would be visible from the side) and on his pedals (which are easily obscured by one's heel or pant cuffs).

So, based on this, I see Taylor beating this charge easily. That she has not been charged with any lesser offences means a judge or jury will have to decide whether to send an 18-year-old girl to jail for negligence, or set her free.

And in the reporting of the event, you can already see the defence position that this was not totally her fault: It was dark and foggy. The victim was dressed in dark clothing, riding an unlit bicycle. Circumstances and the actions of the victim contributed to this death, your honour, and so my client cannot be held responsible. Wrist slap and good luck.

I would lean the other way: motorist not wearing eyewear for driving, talking on a cellphone and speeding. Yes, I said speeding. She overtook a cyclist going the same direction. If Kunich was doing an easy 10 mph (16 km/h), then her impact speed was 25 mph (40 km/h). Is that enough to throw him up onto her windshield and "badly damage" his bike? According to the U.K.'s Living Streets program, the survivability rate of a car-pedestrian collision at 20 mph is 97 per cent. The odds are good that she was not doing the posted limit, in bad conditions. I'd rule for jail time.

To get back to my initial question, will bicycle lights make cyclists any safer at night? I've been handing out sets of BikeLits for the past few weeks. On the face of it, it sounds like the lights I'm dishing out would not have made a lick of difference in the case of a half-blind, near-sighted, cellphone-distracted teen driving at high speeds in foggy conditions. A cyclist would have had to mount a search light on the back of the bike.

Having said that, the people I have been stopping fall way short of being visible. Some of the people I have not stopped, simply because they were not visible to me until they had passed going the other way or up some side street. Of the people I have stopped, a few had reflectors on either front or back. Most were dressed in dark clothing. Not one person had any reflective material on their clothing. In several instances, the cyclists were riding along sidewalks and through crosswalks without apparently checking for traffic. One ran a stop sign; one ran a red light.

I hope that these little lights will make some kind of difference, but a change to night-time cycling behaviour will make the biggest difference. Wearing high-visibility clothing, being cautious around motor vehicle traffic. Doing the basics about signs and signals. Just assume that there is a motorist out there who, in the right circumstances, will kill you. And then change the circumstances so that is less likely to happen.

 

 

Comments

[Frank Xavier]

Wrong place, wrong time. Definitely a reverse lottery winner. Prize - Early, clean exit, no dementia, no lingering dissipation; Similar to dying from being struck by something that has been thrown off a high rise balcony.Unexpected, instant, Unfortunate, tragic, unusual, the end.

[Evan Rosamond]

Yes, there is a motorist out there who could kill you. There is also an airplane up there that could fall on you.

All the statistics I've seen suggest that motorists and their passengers face a bigger risk of dying on the road than cyclists do. The problem is not that motorists are killing cyclists, it's that motorists are killing and injuring all sorts of people and wildlife.

[bubak]

The sad thing is that putting this girl in jail will do nothing to prevent tragedies like this in the future. Blind people will still drive. People will continue to drive impaired by cell phones.

[dan kellar]

Bill, i dont see how sending a young women to jail will bring any type of resolution for anyone. there she would be subjected to daily tortures, strip searches, intimidation, and of course, be violently kept away from her community of friends and family.

while clearly she is at fault, she shold be made to recompense, not have her life destroyed by years behind bars (and its a lot worse in the states so i have heard).

august 10th was international prisoners justice day, remember all those who have died of abuse, neglect, and other tortures and violence while in bars. remember ashley smith who killed herself while guards watched and taunted her - at GVI right here in kitchener, only a year older then the women you wish to send to jail. would you want you kid to go to jail at 18 for 10 years?

we need drivers to become aware of bikes, stop being douchy impatient meatheads, and recognize that while it may be 2 minutes to them, or 10 seconds, or whatever, it is our lives.

also, bikers are not drivers, we dont use cars and cant be held to the same rules as cars. we HAVE to be ultra aware, and signal so we dont get hit, but im going to continue going through stop signs and red lights, when i know and can see that it is safe. stopping and starting like a car is really inefficient (that is why roundabouts are finally coming into fashion in ontario), and will ensure the inefficiencies in other parts of our lives (as we are too tired from inefficiently biking 50km a day). bicycles may be able to help save the world, but only if bikers break out of the shackles of bondage to the car, and start thinking like a bike. we can be as visible as we want - as you well note - it wont stop distracted driving (perhaps societal change would - slow down).

if pepole want to put their energy into legislative changes, make it so drivers have to be more aware, not so bikers have more restrictions to their means of mobility of of enjoying the sport (i cant always afford to buy new parts as they get stolen/broken - like my bell - yet i've got another no bell ticket - $110 - that is bs).

im going to flow and be safe.

[Gary Kunich]

The bicyclist was my son. People please, when you get behind the wheel, turn the cell phone off. If some good can come of this, I will make my son's name legend, and make this an international law. Thank you, Bill, for helping to make that possible.

[Bob Klausegger]

While I agree that no amount of jail time will bring Devin back, there must be accountability. This girl knowing took the wheel without being able to see properly. In doing so she killed a young man before he had a chance to realize his future, devastated his family and shattered the lives of countless people. If you could have seen how many people were touched by Devin in his short time on earth, you would not be so quick to dismiss jail time. Over a thousand people attended his funeral to share their joy of having known him and their sorrow of having lost him.
Further, she allowed herself to be distracted by a phone call. No call is so important that it is worth a man’s life. Further, she admittedly closed her eyes for an extended time. Blind, distracted and eyes closed? I am sorry, that is just being plain stupid and careless. If her life is destroyed, she did it to herself. I am having a hard time feeling sympathy for what may happen to her. My sympathy rests solely with Devin’s family and friends.
There is no sentence that will ever make up for what she did. The maximum the law can had out is ten years (five years in jail, five years probation). It is not enough. Even “a life for a life” would not be enough because it would not make anyone whole or healed. However, if the judge does opt to keep her out of prison, here is an alternate suggestion that may go farther towards justice than anything the law has currently devised. Sentence her to community service. Make her spend the ten years telling her story rather than rotting in prison feeding off the taxpayers. Make her tell the real story. Not the half truths and evasions that her lawyer will spin, but tell what really happened that night. What she did. What happened because of her of her carelessness. And what the impact was on the victim’s parents, siblings, family, friends and community. Have her recount for the next ten years just how many lives were forever altered because she just had to take a call.
10 years X 2000 community service hours per year does not equal rebuilding the lives she shattered. But, it does help to give purpose to the senseless tragedy she created and may save someone else’s life.
BTW – a bike light was found at the accident scene.