I am heartened and disheartened by the following story by Greater Greater Washington. WABA seems to be doing a great job in trying to get improvements in police reporting bicycle related crashes. Similarly, Baltimore’s Mayor’s Bicycling Advisory Committee seems to be making some progress as well but we really need documentation!
Let me stress we need your stories of being in a crash. Did the police say you were at fault or relive the driver of any fault for the crash? But after hearing the police’s explanation there is a lingering feeling that such judgment was in error? Please contact us! We work with the Maryland Highway Safety Office in providing guidance and summaries of bicycle related laws. We have worked with lawyers in providing resources they need to fight for cyclists rights in court. And above all, we want to see change for the better for bicyclists.
But above all we need documentation when it comes to bicyclists something is too frequently off by the police, placing an extra burden of proof on the part of bicyclists. Without documentation there is little hope for change.
I will also mention that my analysis of 2006 bicycle related crashes in Baltimore City only 10% of drivers in bicycle related crashes were found at fault, this is way out of proportion of surrounding counties and puts a huge burden on Baltimore cyclists. Let me explain; in places where there is an effort to educate the police about bicycling laws and at fault information is available I see near the same number of cyclists and drivers at fault (with a small number of unknown.) This makes sense because people are people no mater what their mode of transportation is. So the implication for Baltimore City is there is a large number of cyclists who do not have proper at fault information on the police report so if they wish to recover damages from the driver they must take the drivers insurance company to court. The insurance company has high paid lawyers who specialize in fighting these types of lawsuits and good luck to the cyclist finding a similar lawyer. However if a cyclist was one of the 10% who had a report with an at fault driver, it should/could be as easy as contacting the insurance company and getting a check.
In the following video you can see the DC Council member gets the issues but the Assistant Chief of Police is not really getting it. This is basically what we are up against, how do we make a case so the police see that reporting of bicycling crashes is not fair nor just.
https://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/9296/arlington-pd-follows-up-personally-with-cyclist/oldId.20110218105425783