Bicyclist Dead Because of Driver and Engineer Inattention to Detail

[XLFD]

A bicyclist using the roadway legally gets ran over by a driver not doing so.  Police and media quickly get to the scene so they can clean up the mess and place the blame on the bicycle rider.

AMBER TOWNSHIP — A male bicyclist died Tuesday afternoon following a crash with a vehicle in the 2700 block of US 10/31 between Dennis and Stiles roads. Witnesses stated that the bicyclist was traveling eastbound on the shoulder of the highway and then went onto the roadway, into the path of an eastbound Jeep Liberty, which was traveling in the outside lane, according to Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole, who was on the scene.

The bicyclist was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Jeep was uninjured.

Cross referencing the MCP picture, it's easy to locate the place this happened and the MDOT long-standing engineering problem on that stretch of roadway that led to this unnecessary death.  The skinny tires of a bicycle cannot travel across a sewer grate without having the very real danger of being caught and throwing the driver out into the roadway. 

The option of jumping the curb is equally dangerous, but according to our motor vehicle code, a bicycle has the right to be on the road if they keep to the far right of the far right lane.  This bicyclist was, and was ran over by somebody not giving him that right to avoid wiping out on the shoulder, as per the driver's obligation to do so.  When MDOT put these curbs and gutter systems in around 50 years ago, they guaranteed that bicycle accidents like this would occur ad infinitum.  

Instead of telling us that the bicyclist, with the right-of-way where he was at, was overtaken and ran over by a fully-negligent driver, we are told instead that the victim bicyclist:  "went onto the roadway, into the path of an eastbound Jeep Liberty".  Sheriff Cole, your perspective does not reflect the law or the reality of what happened.  The driver failed to observe his duty to the bicycle rider's right to use the roadway and promptly took the life of another human being.

The driver should have immediately been taken into custody for his part in the felony of Reckless Driving Causing Death.  There is no excuse for running over a bicyclist from behind given the conditions that led to this, you have effectively took over the lane they were riding in and had a right to be in.