ON THE AVENUES: In My Merry Oldsmobile.

“C’mon you stupid motherfucker, keep going – fuck that pussy bicycle rider.”

The voice emanating from behind the wheel of the spluttering, battered and duct-taped SUV sounded like a toxic cocktail of bubbling midsummer’s tar, job site mud, finely aged horse manure and industrial solvent.

I’d been casually waved through the intersection at the 4-way stop by the attentive fellow piloting the pickup in front of the SUV, managing to pedal only a few feet before the abrasive vowel movement commenced, punctuated by blasts on the horn, and quite likely to have included murky rim shots off a spittoon had someone thought to install one in the middle of the street.

At any rate, the furious driver passed up the opportunity to turn right and chase me down Culbertson, preferring to continue honking and screaming about those “fucking cunt bicycles” for a long block, until the obscenities became muffled by the tall brick walls of the old Robinson-Nugent building.

True story.

Wait – did I mention that the driver screaming at me was female? Alas, I've always had this effect on the ladies.

---

Welcome back, cyclist!

Less than 20 miles into the recent revival of a very small sliver of my former two-wheeled habit, my aching derriere may have been in pre-season scrimmage mode, but already New Albany’s internally-combusted denizens of non-calmed, automobile-centric streets were in peak mid-season blind rage.

It’s been quite a while, but there were occasions during my previous life on a bike when objects were thrown in my direction, and drivers displayed a nonchalant eagerness to run me off the road. Far worse has happened to others, as in this horrible account of automotive entitlement in an article about the way potential safety improvements are routinely blocked and averted by auto manufacturers.

The Life-Saving Car Technology No One Wants, by David Zipper (CityLab)

“Early in the morning of August 10, 2019, a man in a Dodge Charger drove along Miami’s MacArthur Causeway. Encountering traffic, he swerved onto the shoulder and accelerated to 100 miles per hour — more than double the speed limit. That’s when he slammed into a man riding his bicycle. The force of the impact was so powerful that the rider was decapitated. The driver had been inebriated at the time of the crash, according to police who spent five months investigating the hit-and-run.

“The cyclist’s death that night was one of an estimated 38,800 that occurred on American streets last year. Pedestrians and cyclists accounted for 8,800 of those fatalities — 23% of the total, up from 6,300 in 2010, when they comprised just 17%. During that period, fatalities for automobile occupants fell.

“In other words, America’s roads are getting safer if you’re inside an automobile, and more deadly if you’re outside of one.

Can someone help me understand exactly what it is about access to an automobile that brings out the very worst in people?

Two months ago when the peaceful and powerful Black Lives Matter protests began nightly in Louisville, I lost count of the simply stunning number of times that an on-line diatribe along the lines of “kill them all and let God sort them out” included a snarky reference to Greg Fischer as “Mayor Bike Lane.”

Admittedly, Fischer was flailing, although for polar opposite reasons. Still, just think about it for a moment.

There at the confluence of novel pandemic and historical racism, with fear, loathing and various viciously sociopathic buttons being pushed, ones dating back to the arrival of the first colonists in North America, the perennially weak-minded among us were frantically googling their own points of reference in search of opprobrium to heap on Fischer, and they landed almost immediately on bike lanes, wild-eyed and foaming at the mouth about the way these libtard obstacles to automotive pre-eminence ostensibly add one, maybe even two minutes to a typical trip across town by their car – perhaps even worse, compelling them to occasionally glance away from their mobile devices and pay attention to what they’re doing.

Again, the dulcet tones: “C’mon you stupid motherfucker, keep going – fuck that pussy bicycle rider.”

This is merely one manifestation of automobile supremacy, which not only is a form of imperialism (defined as “the practice, or advocacy of extending power and dofarm-near-me/">minion”), but surely is the last remaining form of blatant imperialism almost entirely absent social stigma.

As a cyclist once noted, “We’ve gotta be perfect. If a negligent driver kills someone, people see it as a necessary evil. But if a cyclist runs a red light, or a scooter hops onto a sidewalk alongside a busy street, we are just jerks driving crazy little vehicles with no regard for the law.”

When Americans settle into their plush sofas on wheels -- all of us, including me -- our assumptions of acceptable behavior change every bit as radically as when we savage people on social media.

Imperialism? Very much so. When I drive, it must be recognized and wrestled to the floorboard every single mile. Such are the depths to which automobile supremacy has smothered us all, even those who know better.

Imperialism ... because after all, space must be seized to accommodate cars at the expense of non-car users. We demand to warehouse our cars on public ground at no cost to ourselves. We expect cheap fuel and will support seemingly limitless violence (foreign wars, domestic economic coercion) in order to get it.

We'll also go to any self-delusional length to characterize this addiction as freedom. The list of destructive behaviors is seemingly endless, and yet we've made automobile supremacy the basis of civilization at the present time.

---

To be sure, the first step toward improving conditions for non-drivers of any stripe (walking, biking, using wheelchairs, etc) would be an attitude adjustment on the part of drivers; with lobotomies too expensive, at least being subject to the sort of peer pressure that precludes most of us from urinating on the produce at the supermarket might be a nice start.

There are laws against the bladder hydration of cauliflower, and we could use more of those, too, as they pertain to driver behavior, but only if governmental officials accompany legislation (far-fetched, I know) with enforcement mechanisms … and yes, pie-in-the-sky hasn’t ever been quite this unlikely.

Come to think of it, there’s no way of knowing for certain that my verbal abuser on 8th Street wasn’t a government employee.

Am I right?

During my brief time returned to the saddle, there has been ample time to ponder the way so many Americans misunderstand the whole notion of a bicycle’s uses and utility. Take Nawbany, as the most convenient and representative example.

To survey the actions (and more importantly, non-actions) taken by municipal higher-ups for the past decade or more is to quickly see that as it pertains to their attitude toward bicycles, it's as if none of them have ever been to a place in America or abroad where people use bicycles to commute and fulfill actual daily tasks (like they'd use a car to achieve), as opposed to riding a bicycle strictly as a recreational conveyance - often, by loading a bicycle onto a bike rack on a vehicle and driving to a place to ride it.

Conversely, in our planet’s genuinely functional bicycle-friendly cities, the idea is to connect one's front door to a safe route to food, drink, shopping and a haircut in addition to accessing the recreational pathway.

Recall that almost all the pragmatic bicycle infrastructure suggested in Jeff Speck’s street grid plan was stripped from the final version. By equipping most of the historic downtown business district with east-west bike lanes, Speck aimed at helping residents living in the more densely populated districts inside the beltway to transport themselves to downtown amenities by bike instead of car.

It’s conceivable that our movers and shakers grasped this intent, although I doubt it. Simple non-comprehension fits Occam’s paradigm far more logically. Regardless, the conscious decision was made to not pursue genuinely multi-modal transport options, pushing bicycles to the recreational periphery of the city.

The most recent triumphant revelation is a plan to extend the Ohio River Greenway via the levee to the expensive little pocket park next to Silver Creek, where people can store their cars as they pretend to fish for toxic aquatic life while smoking cigarettes and drinking bad light beer.

It’d be a quarter-mile of path, maybe, as well as cute, albeit serving no real constructive purpose as it pertains to people who want to ride their bikes to connect from neighborhoods to the center, presumably because any allowance for the latter would inconvenience drivers. It makes no sense whatever, and I wish someone would explain it to me instead of refusing to discuss it.

However, I'm blackballed; dear reader, might you be acquainted with a journalist of the intrepid sort who might ask these questions of the powers that be?

If so, and if the questions actually are asked some sweet day, can you awaken me when the moment arrives?

I’ll be napping over by that 8th Street spittoon, bicycle chained dutifully to my ankle, waiting for that driver to come past again. She's really getting an earful this time.

---

Recent columns:

August 6: ON THE AVENUES: Surrender.

July 30: ON THE AVENUES: Guys.

July 23: ON THE AVENUES: These overdue mask mandates should help us separate the bad actors from the good.

July 16: ON THE AVENUES: Daniil Kharms, Marina Malich, and writing for the drawer about nothing ... pre-Seinfeld.

Did you do this, doofus? Surrender your commercial driving license immediately.

Prior to Monday, I'd have found it hard to believe that a truck could come this close to felling the huge concrete building guard in the alley by Pints&union. It appears that American dipshit slapdash ingenuity has triumphed, because someone found a way.

In the process, more than a few gallons of oily liquid were spilled all over the alley, to be tracked up and down the sidewalk and into our building. We notified 3rd district councilman Phipps, who passed the information to the street department, and we'll see. The concrete is compromised and will have to be repaired, having done its duty admirably.

My guess? The company that services our used kitchen oil collector. Their phone number is right there on the collection vessel in the alley -- just in case the police launch an investigation.

R.I.P. Orson Bean, killed by two drivers using their cars as weapons.

First, all due respect to the late Orson Bean. He was a ubiquitous figure back in the day, a half-century ago, when I actually watched television.

Yesterday Bean was killed by a driver, maybe two of them, although Hollywood Reporter can't decide for sure.

Seriously, I can't make up these things. Small wonder that outrage over drivers killing non-drivers is lacking when we can't even speak clearly about the facts.

Orson Bean was struck by car (in the headline).

Then he was hit by a car (body of the story).

Then he was hit by a vehicle (same car; first vehicle, body of story).

Only then was he struck by a "second driver," which police say was the fatal act of homicide, and you think for a brief moment maybe the style guideline says one must attribute death to drivers and simple non-fatal maulings to cars, but then the authors write both drivers remained on the scene.

So ... which is it? Drivers, cars, vehicles? Why weren't the attacks on Bean ALL attributed to drivers, who happened to use their cars as murder weapons?

Orson Bean, 'Dr. Quinn' Actor, Dies at 91 After Being Struck by Car by Mike Barnes and Duane Byrge

He was a standout on Broadway, played Mr. Bevis on 'The Twilight Zone' and was related to Calvin Coolidge and Andrew Breitbart.

Orson Bean, the witty New Englander who starred on Broadway, was a longtime panelist on To Tell the Truth and played the dour owner of the general store on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, died Friday night after being hit by a car in Venice, authorities said. He was 91.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office confirmed Bean's death to the Associated Press, saying it was being investigated as a "traffic-related" fatality. It provided the location where Bean was found, which matched reports from local news outlets.

L.A. police told The Hollywood Reporter a pedestrian in his 90s was walking eastbound in the area of Venice Boulevard and Shell Avenue at 7:35 p.m. when he was hit by a vehicle.

A second driver then struck him in what police say was the fatal collision, and both drivers remained on the scene, L.A. Police Department Capt. Brian Wendling initially told local stations, which identified Bean based on eyewitness accounts.

Examples from the News and Tribune illustrate how "Media Coverage of Car Crashes Downplays the Role of Drivers."

Read the headline again.

How Media Coverage of Car Crashes Downplays the Role of Drivers

It has been my contention for quite some time that the News and Tribune is a prime and persistent practitioner of this bias. These lapses may or may not be intentional. They just are.

First, the article explaining why.

I urge you to suspend your own biases for just a moment and read what Richard Florida has to say. After the article's conclusion, I'll paste recent examples from Facebook of the News and Tribune's (at best) inconsistent scattershot approach -- at times proper, at others ridiculous.

Note that the research referred to by Florida describes "pedestrians and cyclists collectively as 'vulnerable road users,' or VRUs."

---

How Media Coverage of Car Crashes Downplays the Role of Drivers, by Richard Florida (CityLab)

Safety advocates have long complained that media outlets tend to blame pedestrians and cyclists who are hit by cars. Research suggests they’re right.

Since 2013, deaths among pedestrians and cyclists on U.S. roads have risen by nearly 30 percent and 14 percent respectively. Yet the public reaction to this spike in deaths has been fairly muted. Why?

One possible reason: road safety advocates have long complained that media outlets tend to blame pedestrians and cyclists who are hit by cars. A paper published earlier this year in a journal of the National Academy of Sciences’ Transportation Research Board offers proof that they’re right.

snip

News stories overwhelmingly (but often subtly) shift blame onto pedestrians and cyclists, the researchers found. “Coverage almost always obscures the public health nature of the problem by treating crashes as isolated incidents, by referring to crashes as accidents, and by failing to include input from planners, engineers, and other road safety experts,” they write.

Despite its suggestion of inevitability and faultlessness, ‘‘accident’’ was the most commonly used term for crashes, occurring in 47 percent of sentences in articles’ body text and 11 percent of titles across the sample. News reports were also much more likely to use phrases like “a pedestrian or cyclist was hit by a car” instead of “a driver hit a pedestrian.”

(Journalists, it should be noted, have legal obligations to avoid placing blame on either party without an official determination by police or other authorities.)

Sentence structure and word choice matter. “A pedestrian was hit by a car” centers the victim getting hit—and as the authors note, “[p]eople tend to place greater blame on the focus of the sentence,” i.e., the victim. This kind of language de-emphasizes the agency of the driver. Additionally, many news reports used what the authors call “object-based language.” They explain:

Reports may describe a vehicle doing something rather than a driver (‘‘a car jumped the curb’’ versus ‘‘a driver drove over the curb’’). Object-based language obscures the driver’s role in the incident, thereby reducing blame. Observers tend to refer to people in cars using ‘‘object-based’’ language (e.g., car, traffic) but typically describe people walking or using bicycles with ‘‘human-based’’ language (e.g., bicyclist, pedestrian, person). This practice assigns unequal agency among the two groups.

Across the 200 articles that the researchers analyzed, 65 percent of sentences did include an agent—but that agent was the VRU in a full 74 percent of cases. And when a driver or vehicle was mentioned, sentences used object-based language (“A car hit a cyclist”) 81 percent of the time. “In other words, sentences overwhelmingly referred to an inanimate object as the actor [in a crash] rather than a driver,” the authors write, adding: “The use of object-based language was particularly jarring in the case of hit-and-run collisions where ‘the vehicle drove away.’’’

More than a quarter of the articles did not mention the driver at all, and some seemed to blame the victim for “darting” in front of a car.

News reports rarely mention the broader context behind car crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists. Safety advocates are right to be alarmed. Last year, more than 6,000 pedestrians were killed on roadways, up 3.4 percent from the previous year and the highest number since 1990. The fatality rate for cyclists jumped even higher (by 6.3 percent). This was during a period when overall traffic deaths (that is, including drivers) actually fell by 2.4 percent.

Very few of the articles in the sample brought up the role of road design or framed crashes as a public health issue, and none quoted experts knowledgeable in urban planning or traffic engineering. “This pattern of coverage likely contributes to the limited public outcry about pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities,” the authors observe.

Journalists are falling into common linguistic traps rather than consciously victim-blaming. But the problem is exacerbated by the shrinking of local newsrooms, so there are fewer seasoned reporters out there covering our deadly roads.

There are several steps journalists can take to cover road crashes more accurately. First and foremost, they should avoid referring to them as “accidents” and use “crash” or “collision” instead. “Because of the undue neutrality that ‘accident’ conveys, the editors of the British Medical Journal banned the use of the word” in 2001, as the paper notes.

Journalists should also be mindful of the tendency to blame the victim and to attribute agency to inanimate objects (cars). They should not let drivers off the hook, especially in cases of hit-and-run deaths. And they should look for patterns in pedestrian and cyclist deaths and contextualize their stories accordingly. Articles should probe issues such as road design, local failure to act on traffic safety initiatives (for example, Vision Zero policies), and broader public health. Experts can be helpful by acting as a resource for local news outlets covering this topic.

Ultimately, the study finds evidence for what many urbanists and safety advocates have been saying: The media is complicit in the growing American crisis of death by vehicle drivers. Better reporting practices are an indirect but important way to get to Vision Zero.

---

Before listing examples of muddled News and Tribune usage, allow me to offer all requisite condolences to the families of the child and woman from Pekin, both killed by drivers the past month. Anyway you cut it, they're awful losses.

Permit me also to add that one way to help avoid future occurrences is to be precise in the way we refer to the situation, something the newspaper currently is struggling to achieve. Without knowing what exactly we're talking about, how can we move forward to make it better?

As an aside, what does the woman being a transient have to do with anything?

So: Crashes or accidents?

The newspaper gets it right ... often, though not always.

Hit by a car, or hit by a driver? Interesting that in the case of two walkers being struck, both were hit by a car, not a driver. But twice when two vehicles were involved in a mishap, drivers/humans are mentioned as having been involved.

When I brought this up on Facebook, something on the order of 15 comments were hurled at me to the effect that walkers are always to blame because they shouldn't be located where drivers are operating.

However the way I can recall being taught in driver's ed, the driver bears a responsibility to be proactive above and beyond all minimum standards. Now it's almost never the driver's fault; that's not the newspaper's doing, of course, but there's a great deal of complicity on the part of the nation's prosecutors, perhaps owing to an inadequate statutory structure.

Back to Florida's case. When's the last time you heard anyone locally -- newspaper, prosecutor, police, elected officials -- do any of this?

"They should look for patterns in pedestrian and cyclist deaths and contextualize their stories accordingly. Articles should probe issues such as road design, local failure to act on traffic safety initiatives (for example, Vision Zero policies), and broader public health. Experts can be helpful by acting as a resource for local news outlets covering this topic."

Our milieu at present is a sort of societal imperialism afforded by automobile centrism. As I've noted previously, driving is the last acceptable vestige of such imperialism in American life. Society properly frowns on the "N" word, sexual harassment and ableism, to name a few.

But we still willfully and almost proudly choose our words to absolve drivers who kill walkers, bikers and other non-automotive users of our planet.

Where does it say that drivers have MORE rights than non-drivers? Was that in the Declaration of Independence somewhere, and I missed it?

This narcissistic imperialism is the way most of us treat the undisputed hegemony of cars, isn't it?

My point, then: If media generally (and I believe lazily) phrases driver and walker/cyclist interaction as the former's interests invariably outweighing the latter's, then at the very least media is doing nothing to help resolve the problem.

The preceding placards clearly indicate that the News and Tribune could do better in every way cited by Florida's report.

Whether it cares to do so is something I wouldn't be willing to bet actually happens.

Car-centrism: Why does the news media always let human drivers off the hook when non-driving humans get killed?

Can any human (as opposed to his or her word processor) connected with the news media, now or in the past, explain why other humans walking, biking or skateboarding invariably are hit, injured and sometimes killed by vehicles, and not by the humans driving them?

Is this stated somewhere in a style guide: Thou shalt not trouble a driver when a vehicle can be blamed?

Greenville councilman fatally struck by car, by Aprile Rickert (Tom May Unlimited)

Alan K. Johnson was struck Saturday on U.S. 150

GREENVILLE — The Town of Greenville is mourning the loss of a community staple and council member who died Saturday after being struck by a car.

Alan K. Johnson, 66, was crossing the road in the 9600 block of U.S. 150 when he was hit by a 1996 Toyota Rav4, driven by Constance Sue Huber, 69, of DePauw, according to a news release from the Floyd County Sheriff's Department.

First in the title, then in the opening paragraph -- and for a third time in the opening clause of the second paragraph, it's the car that killed Johnson. Only in the second paragraph is the driver identified.

Wait -- the driver was identified?

Has the driver who killed Matt Brewer in August yet been identified?

Has the Combined Accident Reconstruction Team, the prosecutor's fanciful name for "here in Floyd County we don't prosecute drivers for killing non-drivers," released the report on Matt's death?

In May of 2016, Chloe Allen was killed by a driver named Terra Lawrence while trying to cross Spring Street at the suburban chain hellscape of Vincennes and Spring. The late Branden Klayko wrote about it at Broken Sidewalk.

I'm reprinting Branden's commentary in its entirety, with highlighting of crucial passages.

Woman killed by motorist in New Albany

Chloe Allen, 83, is dead after being struck by a motorist in downtown New Albany over the weekend.

The collision took place at Spring Street and Vincennes Street in the Southern Indiana city at 2:00p.m. on Friday, May 13. Allen was crossing the street in the crosswalk when struck by Terra Lawrence, 42, who failed to observe Allen in the street. Lawrence was driving a 2013 Dodge Ram truck and turning left onto Spring from Vincennes, according to police reports. Allen died after being transported to University Hospital in Louisville.

The incident was reported by the WLKY, WDRB, WHAS11, and the News & Tribune.

While a great deal of information was rendered by an investigation, it’s unfortunate that for the sake of a catchy acronym, the unit is labeled the Floyd County Combined Accident Reconstruction Team. As we have discussed many times, crashes and accidents are very different things and should not be mislabeled.

All of the local news reported that the pedestrian was struck “by a vehicle” rather than the driver of that vehicle. Cars and trucks don’t drive themselves—people crash them into things. Both WDRB and WHAS11 labeled the crash an accident, with WHAS11 going as far as to include a large “Accident” graphic complete with cracked windshield illustrating its report.

Each report duly noted a police statement that said speed nor alcohol are suspected in the crash. From a witness account, the motorist simply was not paying attention when turning, although none of the reports cited that the driver was errant or that charges were due.

New Albany has really let itself go at this intersection, allowing an anti-urban Walgreens, White Castle, and Rally’s to be built behind moats of parking that make walking unsafe. Low visibility crosswalks are clearly worn away by vehicle tires, compounding the walkability issue.

But the city should have seen this one coming. Back in 2014, urban planner Jeff Speck issued a report on the streets of downtown New Albany in which he identified Vincennes Street as “clearly oversized for its traffic.” Speck wrote of the three-lane street: “At no point do car accounts approach the number that would require a third lane. This condition is supported by the fact that the third lane, rather then (sic) being striped for left turns, merely provides northbound redundancy with no southbound counterpart.” He recommended a reconfiguration to improve safety.

Speck had also recommended making Spring Street west of here, among other local streets, a two-way thoroughfare (Spring is two-way to the east). He labeled Spring Street’s design as it moved from a grid to a highway layout as dangerous:

This four-lane section of Spring Street also feels very much like a highway, and experiences a large amount of speeding while creating an environment that is dangerous to walk along or live near. The ideal solution for this street would be to calm the traffic and create an environment of greater safety, without significantly changing its capacity, beyond perhaps a slight lowering of volume to match current demand.

Further, KIPDA has ranked two segments of Spring Street in New Albany—including this intersection—as among the most crash-prone in all of Southern Indiana, spurring plans for design changes on the street. Most of those changes call for lights making driving through the area easier, but buffered bike lanes are also part of the plan, which will be under construction this summer. Even these minor changes were challenged by area trucking companies in court, citing they make driving big rigs through the area more difficult.

New Albany has a long way to go on street safety.

By the way, as City Hall dithers about radar displays to tell them what the man in the moon already knows -- drivers drive too damn fast on Spring Street -- dead man's curve remains a killing waiting to happen.

ASK THE BORED: Faced with 75 signatures on a petition, Nash, Summers and the clueless BOW non-safety board can't muster a single empathetic response.

Dead Man's Curve has killed, and it will kill again unless our cowardly ruling clique does its job.

They're not going to do anything to promote public safety, are they?

Here, there and everywhere, "In crashes that kill pedestrians, the majority of drivers don't face charges."

Drivers surely comprise the most privileged class of Americans in history. Who else is able to wreak this much havoc with so little fear of punishment? Apart from the Pentagon, I can't think of any.

In crashes that kill pedestrians, the majority of drivers don't face charges. Between 2010 and 2014, there were 3,069 crashes with pedestrians in the Twin Cities and its suburbs. 95 were killed. 28 drivers were charged. But many of the deaths weren't even judged worth a traffic ticket.

I googled "how often are drivers prosecuted for killing pedestrians?" The top result says it all.

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Most drivers in crashes that kill pedestrians don't face charges ...

www.startribune.com/in-crashes-that-kill-pedestrians-the...drivers...t.../380345481/

May 22, 2016 - The majority of drivers who killed pedestrians between 2010 and 2014 were not ... Those who were charged often faced misdemeanors — from ...

Carol Wiggins crossed Territorial Road every day at the crosswalk on her way home from work in Watertown. But the driver of the car that hit her one evening said he didn’t see her until it was too late.

Wiggins never recovered from the traumatic brain injury from the 2011 crash, dying weeks later in a Minneapolis hospital. The driver never faced any charges — not even a traffic citation.

“It doesn’t help with trying to get any kind of closure,” her daughter, Monica Fortwengler, said. “You always have that little bit of, ‘Why was my mom’s life not deemed worthy of even a flippin’ traffic ticket?’ ”

The decision not to cite the driver who struck Wiggins isn’t unusual. The majority of drivers who killed pedestrians between 2010 and 2014 were not charged, according to Star Tribune analysis of metro area crash data. Those who were charged often faced misdemeanors — from speeding to careless driving — with minimal penalties, unless the driver knowingly fled or was intoxicated at the time of the crash.

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There are plenty more where that came from.

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Drivers in pedestrian fatalities rarely charged, prosecutors say | The ...

https://www.macon.com/news/local/article31898907.html

Aug 22, 2015 - Drivers who hit and kill pedestrians are rarely charged in those incidents, according to prosecutors and law enforcement officials.When drivers ...

Drivers who hit pedestrians often get little or no jail time - Orlando ...

www.orlandosentinel.com/.../pedestrian.../os-pedestrian-enforcement-20130709-story....

Jul 9, 2013 - Drivers who strike pedestrians usually receive little or no jail time, found a ... "When you killed our Bobby, you took an innocent," sister Penny Stout, 49, ... The Sentinel identified 54 drivers charged with criminaldriving offenses ...

Few consequences exist for drivers who kill pedestrians - SFGate

https://www.sfgate.com/.../Few-consequences-exist-for-drivers-who-kill-4473786.php

Apr 29, 2013 - When drivers did face criminal charges, less than 60 percent had their driving ... Few consequences exist for drivers who kill pedestrians .... Forty percent of those convicted served no more than a day in jail; 13 drivers were ...

Sober drivers rarely prosecuted in fatal pedestrian crashes in Oregon ...

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/.../sober_drivers_rarely_prosecute.htm...

Nov 15, 2011 - But details are often sketchy because most pedestriandeaths ... Tito Jose Feliciano, the driver who killed Lindsay Leonard and Jessica Finlay.

Drivers who kill people on bikes often don't get prosecuted – Greater ...

https://ggwash.org/view/.../drivers-who-kill-people-on-bikes-often-dont-get-prosecute...

Mar 17, 2015 - Authorities rarely prosecute the drivers, and when they do, punishments aren't very harsh. During ... Drivers who kill people on bikesoften don't get prosecuted .... I can say that when cyclists are behaving aspedestrians (on ...

The Outrageous, Unjust Rule That Lets New York Drivers Who Hit ...

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2014/10/the...drivers...pedestrians.../380980/

Oct 1, 2014 - Local officials have tried to turn the terrible incident into social progress by ... from properly investigating, charging, and prosecuting drivers who kill. ... On the flip side, drivers who merely hit a pedestrian or cyclist—even hopping ... of a car sometimes, the list of problems with the "rule of two" is a long one.

Driver charged with slamming car into pedestrian, killing him

https://nypost.com/.../driver-charged-with-slamming-car-into-pedestrian-killing-him/

Jul 1, 2018 - An unlicensed driver was arrested on Sunday after he hit andkilled a ... p.m. when he lost control and drove onto the sidewalk, authorities said.

On Spring Street today by Breakwater, a bicyclist riding in a bike lane was hit by a driver.

A friend just wrote that her husband was riding his bike home from work this afternoon on Spring Street and was hit by a driver, who claimed to be "watching for cars, not bikes" while pulling into Spring from a side street.

It happened right in front of Breakwater.

The bicyclist, who was using the bike lane exactly like he should, suffered two cervical fractures in his neck.

And the driver?

Brain dead, but seriously, there'll probably be no other ramifications because there never are.

It's always an "accident" when a cyclist or walker is hit by a driver, isn't it?

When there's further information, I'll update this.