{"id":151067602,"date":"2009-10-15T11:13:22","date_gmt":"2009-10-15T11:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=151067602"},"modified":"2009-10-15T11:13:22","modified_gmt":"2009-10-15T11:13:22","slug":"deadly-car-vs-bike-accidents-should-they-be-a-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=151067602","title":{"rendered":"Deadly car vs. bike accidents: Should they be a crime?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Susanne Scaringi died after her bicycle slammed into the side of a van that abruptly pulled in front of her. The driver had failed to yield.<br \/>\nThe driver wasn&#8217;t drunk or using drugs, and didn&#8217;t commit a crime under state law. But should it be a criminal offense to commit a traffic infraction that results in someone&#8217;s death?<br \/>\nThat&#8217;s one question the Cascade Bicycle Club wants to ask Wednesday during a Traffic Justice Summit to be held at City Hall. The club is proposing a new state law that would aim to protect bicyclists and pedestrians, and is inviting victims and the public to weigh in during the two-hour discussion.<br \/>\nThe advocacy group is pushing for a &quot;Vulnerable User Bill,&quot; which would expand Washington&#8217;s negligent driving law to include traffic infractions that result in death or serious injury to a cyclist or pedestrian, such as a fatal failure to yield. Such infractions then would become gross misdemeanors, punishable by up to a year in jail.<br \/>\nThe proposal is the club&#8217;s top priority for the 2010 legislative session, said David Hill, Cascade&#8217;s advocacy director.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nThe appellate court overturned the law after ruling that it didn&#8217;t mesh with a state law that decriminalizes most minor traffic infractions.<br \/>\n&quot;This isn&#8217;t about acts of God or things that are generally unavoidable. This is about when people deliberately ignore the parameters we have established for safe operation of what is a very dangerous appliance and it results in seriously bodily injury or death,&quot; he said.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.seattlepi.com\/transportation\/archives\/181971.asp\">https:\/\/blog.seattlepi.com\/transportation\/archives\/181971.asp<\/a>oldId.20091015111322290<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Susanne Scaringi died after her bicycle slammed into the side of a van that abruptly pulled in front of her. The driver had failed to yield. The driver wasn&#8217;t drunk or using drugs, and didn&#8217;t commit a crime under state law. But should it be a criminal offense to commit a traffic infraction that results &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=151067602\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Deadly car vs. bike accidents: Should they be a crime?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151067602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151067602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151067602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151067602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151067602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151067602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151067602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}